Phantom's Spawn
by Morning Bleach
Summary: It's 2018. Sam's daughter is fourteen. She's never met her dad, doesn't know what these powers are she's suddenly got or who the white-haired jerk is who is kissing her mom. Abbi's been stuck in 1998 for a week now and still has no clue about how to get home. Time for someone to learn just who Phantom really is... (no PP) new chapter coming on Jan 15th
1. Chapter 1: Abigail

Happy 1st Birthday to my niece Quinn Lee! {If you happen to have read my story 'Concealment' for Miraculous Ladybug, you will already know how excited we are to have Quinny around! :) }

In Honor of your First Birthday I want to Post this 'new' story.

This is actually an adopted story. The original and inspiration for this story is "Spawn of a Phantom" by SilverMoonPhantom. A link to her story can be found on my profile page.

So, a little introduction to our main character.

Abigail Fenton was born on April 3rd, 2004 (the same day Danny Phantom first aired). She has long black hair, navy blue eyes and a fascination with the paranormal. Today's date is Tuesday, June 5th, 2018, making Abbi fourteen-years-old.

 _ **Chapter One: Abigail**_

 _Tuesday, June 5th, 2018_

Beep...beep...beep. Beep Beep Beep. BEEP! BEEP! BE—

Click.

Abigail's hand slipped back beneath her covers as a groan left her lips. Mornings… she hated mornings…. _Why did they have to come so fast?_ She grumbled to herself.

The comforter moved and twitched as she drug it down, revealing her grumpy face to the room. Sleepy dark blue eyes were partially hidden behind a sheet of dark ebony hair that continued under the covers. The young teenager blinked in the pail morning light before rolling over, burying her face in the pillows, the blankets rolling with her.

Nine minutes later the alarm blared again, jogging the girl awake. She hit the alarm once more but didn't put her head back into the pillows this time. Sighing she threw the blankets off and tossed bare pale legs over the side of the bed. Her lose tank top and shorts were ruffled by sleep and twisted around her slim body. She righted them before she stood up and surveyed her room. Dark blue eyes glanced over her plain off-white walls and a glossy black dresser that stood in one corner. Flicking on her light, the room was bathed in an eerie green glow caused by the green glass cover of her ceiling light. Thin silver chains and trinkets glinted slightly, casting small dots of light around the already eerie green glow.

The supernatural aura was her desired effect. The fourteen-year-old had a strange obsession with all things supernatural, something her mom claimed was 'a trait of the family'. However, Abbi didn't really believe her. Her mother was as normal as could be. Aside from an odd liking for the color black and a room that Abbi was never permitted to enter. Her mother said it was her husband's room, like a workplace or office, and no one was supposed to enter it, no matter what the emergency. The door was always locked (And yes, she had tried to get in. The dumb room had no windows and the door seemed to be locked from the inside. In more ways than one).

Speaking of her father…

No matter how hard she tried, Abbi could never catch a chance to speak with him, let alone see him. His visits were rare, rarer then rare and short. They always seemed to be when Abbi was gone at school or asleep late at night. And he only stayed in the house for a few hours each time. He always seemed to be running off somewhere. She'd barely ever seen his face, let along heard his voice. Sure, there were pictures of him. Mostly of him as a teenager; one on her parents wedding day; another one from the day she was born, him holding a blanket in the hospital. But seeing the man face to face was far easier said than done.

Abigail slipped out of her pajama shorts and into some overlarge jeans that covered her long legs. She pulled on a loose-fitting black t-shirt with white-edged sleeves and fastened a black choker around her neck. She snatched up her favorite thin chain-link belt and fastened it with swift, well trained movements before she glanced out her window.

She watched as the age-old tree behind her house scratch its branches gently against the glass. Nodding absently to the tree's withered fingers, she turned her back on her room and heading toward the staircase at the end of the hall.

She softly brushed her fingers over the green emerald embedded in her black choker. It glinted faintly in the light streaming in the hallway window. As her fingers brushed against the gem a sudden chill ran up her spine before a gasp sent an oddly visible breath from her lips. Her breath glowed blue in the light and caused Abbi to pause at the window, staring at it as the - what she could only describe as fog - dissipated into the air.

When her next breath didn't appear in the same fashion, she tried to shrug it off as her attention was caught by her mother's voice traveling up the stairs. Proceeding forward she headed down the stairs as her mother paused. Then Abbi froze. A second voice had responded to her mother.

A male voice.

Dozens of worries swept over the teen. Right away her movement switching over into a sort of stealth mode. Her muscles were tense as she slid silently down the stairs as quietly as she could. Reaching the bottom, she carefully stepped over the last step, avoiding the creaky wood and continued over the hardwood floor towards the kitchen.

Why her mother had chosen medieval weaponry as a style of décor for this wing of the house she didn't know, but now she was quite grateful. Pressing her body against the wall just outside the doorway, she glanced up to assure herself the swords were still there before crouching down to eavesdrop.

"Her grades are slipping... She just can't seem to pay attention in class," her mother was saying. "I took her to a psychatris- No, her name was NOT Spectra. I know just as well as you – Sorry. The dude said she was perfectly normal, only a little distracted."

Trust her mom to call a well-known psychiatrist 'dude'. Choosing to ignore the choice of words, Abbi leaned toward the doorway a bit as her mother sighed sadly.

"She keeps asking questions."

There was a pause, then…

"Questions about me?"

There was that voice again! It sounded painfully familiar, though rather warped, as if it had an echo interwoven into a more natural sound.

Abbi lifted her hand, brushing a few locks of her ebony hair back behind her ear incase that was the problem with the sound. Her muscles were starting to ache from being tense for too long in one position.

Her mother must have nodded the answer, for the voice began again. It gave her chills to hear it, but she couldn't seem to stop listening.

"…should try and talk with her. In human form, of course. If she doesn't believe it…, you can show her the photos, maybe that would help."

Abbi stopped short. _Human form? What was that supposed mean?_ her thoughts were interrupted as the voice began again, sounding almost hopeful.

"Has she shown any signs of powers?"

"No... And she's not klutzy or nervous or anything like her dad was," her mother said, a smile in her voice, the same smile she always got when talking about Abbi's father. "I don't think she's hiding any, she's just… distracted."

 _Powers?_ Abigail thought, losing track of the meaning of the conversation. _Were_ they talking about her? She had thought that's what was going on but surely _she_ couldn't be the topic… right?

Taking a deep breath Abigail finally leaned to the side and peeked around the corner.

Her jaw dropped in shock.

The entire room was bathed in an eerie white glow which originated from the figure near its center. A tall man with shocking - was it glowing? - white hair stood with his arms draped around her mother's waist. Her mother had her arms draped around the man's shoulders. Sam's violet eyes gazed tenderly up at the man.

Abbi couldn't see his face, but the fact her mother was gazing with such love at some strange man made her want to scream and puke at the same time. Then something else caught her attention.

Glancing down Abbi saw that the man's feet weren't touching the ground. The white boots were suspended in the air, floating an inch or so above the floor, with their own silvery glow. From the one hand she could see curved around her mom's hip, his gloves were also platinum white. The man began to lean forward, Abigail knew instantly what he planned on doing. And her mother clearly wasn't going to stop him, no, she was closing her eyes, leaning up to…

Her mother KISSED the floating white-haired man!

And she didn't stop!

Horror and despair grew in Abigail's insides, turning her stomach to stone. Without thinking, the fourteen-year-old leapt upward and ripped the sword from its showcase sheath. Then Abigail leapt into the room, screaming a war cry of rage.

The silver blade sliced through the air and smashed down against the side of the man's skull. He toppled off to the side, crashing against the wall in apparent surprise. Abbi stood between the man and her mother, sword raised, ready to swing again should he make any sudden movements. As she watched the man, the surprisingly small cut the blade made across his temple mended itself in front of her disbelieving eyes. His own green eyes reproachful as he rose to his feet, eyeing the girl's samurai stance carefully.

Abigail sized him up as he gazed at her. He looked well-muscled, but not body-builder like, more just something he did for exercise. Without giving him a chance to attack first, Abigail lunged forward again, snarling in anger. But this time the blade just passed through his form. Small wisps of his being yanked off by the swiftly moving sword before reforming back into his body, melding back into the black outfit… undamaged.

A glowing white symbol on his chest rematerialized with it. It looked like a funny shaped letter 'D', but the letter wasn't closed at the bottom. Pressing the strange symbol away from her mind she refocused her attention on his face. His eyes had lost their reproachful look, replaced with something she couldn't quite place.

Suddenly arms appeared at her sides, forcing her to drop the sword. Quite confused on the reason her mother had chosen this of all times to go again against her, Abbi lashed out with both feet, nailing the startled man in the stomach before falling on her rear due to lack of support.

"Relax!"

Her mother's voice was loud in her ear, and she slowly complied, baring her teeth in a feral challenge. The iron grip slowly released her forearms, leaving the teen to mutter incoherent curses, glaring sullenly at the tiled floor.

That creepy chill lanced up her spine, and she whipped her gaze upward, only to scramble backward as she found the man's face alarmingly close to her own. His glowing green eyes were curiously searching, not at all hostile despite the obvious attempt on his life.

He grinned, floating slightly higher.

"You were right, she is a lot like..."

But he didn't finish his statement. Instead he froze for an instant before straightening up and speeding upward through the air, disappearing through the ceiling. A moment of silence ensued, before the enormity of what happened hit the teen full in the face.

Tearing herself away from her mother, she turned to face her mother's amused face with a passionate rage that surprised even her.

"How could you do that!"

Her voice rang through the house, probably down the street as well. However, her mother did nothing to stop the piercing accusations, velvet eyes widened with astonishment. The newly kindled fury in the girl did not die with the first scream, only growing fiercer.

"How could you betray me and dad to that... that THING!"

Her mother's face looked hurt, lips thinning into a frown. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself, aware of the light dancing around her daughter's clenched fists.

Abbi whirled away from the startled woman. Storming back up the stairs she climbed up the ladder to their attic, oblivious to the scorch marks her hands made on the thick wood as anger seared through her veins.

Sam slowly exhaled, hand trembling as she unlocked the cellular phone recently taken from the counter. Hesitating for a moment, she quickly dialed a series of numbers, placing it to her ear and wrapping her free hand across her own waist. The receiver picked up, and before they could even say hello, she butted in.

"Tucker? It's Sam... tell Danny to come back. She _does_ have them."

Without another word, she hung up, glancing down at where a rug once lay.

There was now nothing but a circular layer of ash.

 ** _Posted 7/5-15/18_**

Chapter one done! Posted June 5th and 15th.

I will ( _To the best of my ability and free time_ ) update the story on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of every month. Chapter lengths will be a bit sporadic, just depending on how much time I have to write and what all needs to happen before the chapter ends.

This story is not completely written however I did have a story board written out that, unfortunately my computer crashed, and I lost it (along with all my other stories…) so I am having to go by memory anyway. The first three chapters here are the four chapters _SilverMoonPhantom_ wrote. I have 'rewritten' them so that the transition to my style of writing isn't so noticeable.

When I found her story on FanFiction early in 2018 I just couldn't let it go and my brain kept creating different scenes and scenarios that would eventually evolve into this story you will read over the coming months.

I do hope you enjoy this story and feel free to leave a review, they keep me smiling!

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	2. Chapter 2: Phantoms

_**Chapter Two: Phantoms**_

 _Tuesday, June 5th, 2018_

Abigail's flee to the attic ended with her locking the trap door from the inside and turning on the light. The room was carpeted with thick, purple material that warmed one's feet after a split second of contact. The walls were painted black, with strange, dark green swirls drifting across the arched ceiling. The attic had been decorated like this for as long as she could remember, either designed by her mother or father, she never knew. In the far corner of the room was a pair of huge, navy-blue bean bags, and a miniature fridge stocked with every assortment of junk food for the rare occasions that her few friends came over. A mirror lay behind the two bean bags, it was a floor length mirror and good for checking one's looks before stalking back downstairs after a good cry. Or rant. Or emotional outburst of any kind.

On the walls of the room were scattered portraits of close family and friends, moments of time plastered on the walls with tape, or framed and officially hung. The largest portrait was about a foot across, sporting the image of a teenage boy, captured at an odd angle. Almost a bird's eye view but tilted haphazardly to let him gaze mischievously up at whoever was taking the picture. He was dressed in simple jeans and a red and white tee shirt, messy black hair obscuring one eye, but failing to cover the look of amusement his playful smirk implied. Her father as a teen, the image she always drew upon when he was brought up in conversation.

Abbi sighed, crossing the room in a few long strides and plopping down in the bean bag. For a while she merely sat and fumed, head pounding with her own heartbeat.

Abbi ran her fingers through long ebony hair, thinking about the strange glowing man who had made her so angry that she hadn't thought clearly. He had kissed her mom! KISSED! HER _MOM_!

She gave an involuntary shudder before standing upright and gazing in the mirror.

But something was wrong…

Her brain took a few moments before realizing what she was seeing. There were footprints in the plush carpet where she stood... but no her. It was as if she was invisible.

Abbi let out an ear-piercing shriek. Leaping backward in fright, Abbi tripped over her own feet and fell on her rear. She clutched the thick purple carpet as if it were her only lifeline, knuckles white.

She stared at the mirror again, shaken, but her reflection was back. _It was a trick of the light…_ she told herself. Closing her eyes, she released the carpet from her death hold and inhaled slowly.

 _This day just seemed to get better and better,_ she grumbled, standing upright once again.

A tingling sensation along her stomach forced her to open her eyes, half expecting herself to be waking up from a strange nightmare with her mom tickling her belly with the feather duster.

Confusion and panic swept over her again… Everything looked… small…?

She glanced toward the mirror once again, but her reflection had vanished _again_ …

Wait...

Her eyes slowly traveled up the reflective surface, locking onto the image of her own feet.

Several feet above the floor.

Abigail was… flying?! Floating?

" _Has she shown any signs of powers?"_

" _No... And she's not klutzy or nervous or anything like her dad was," her mother said, a smile in her voice, the same smile she always got when talking about Abbi's father. "I don't think she's hiding any, she's just… distracted."_

Perhaps… were these the 'powers' that the man and her mom had mentioned? Had… the two really _had_ been talking about her... hadn't they…

Abigail wobbled, suddenly feeling much weaker. After a second of a sudden struggle to remain in the air, she fell to the floor, stumbling backwards and landing on her back. Trying to ignore the pain from her bruised shoulder blades, she closed her eyes, thinking.

 _Like her dad was._

 _Like her DAD was._

Her father had had powers? Powers like these perhaps? Supernatural powers… _a trait of the family…_ Had Abigail inherited these powers from her father? That thought had an oddly calming effect on her. She opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling, dark eyes flooded with emotion, her hair spread out on the carpet in a half-circle around her head. And somehow, just like that, she found she had accepted the fact she was graced with supernatural abilities. Supernatural _powers_. She grinned at the ceiling, giddy for a reason she wasn't completely sure about.

She glanced at her hands, wondering what all these powers included. What more to them were there? Why had she gotten them? If they were inherited from her _father_ , where had he gotten them? She had never seen her mother show any type of power, so they _had_ to be solely from her father.

Suddenly the image of the white-haired stranger, his feet hanging in the air, unsupported, popped into her mind. He had been floating as well. Were these the superpowers found in all the comics in the bookstores? Could there be other people with these powers? With different types of powers? How many more were there? How could she find them? How could she learn about her powers? She had so many questions!

 _I need to figure out how I got these powers. And then who that jerk was. I wish-_

She froze. Something her mom had drilled into her since she was a child came to the forefront of her mind.

 _My mom said to never wish for anything. Something about a ghost..._

She had believed her mother when she was a child. It was a reason she always liked the supernatural, her mother had believed it. Or so that's what she thought when she was young. As she grew up, she still wanted to believe her mother but how could she when she had no proof. Her mother never said it was a lie.

When kids at school had learned the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause were imaginary, they told her that what her mother had said had to be a lie as well. When she had asked her mother if it was a lie her mother had claimed everything she'd said was true. "I have never had reason to believe the Tooth Fairy and Santa Clause are real, but I know for sure, that the supernatural is very, very true." Her mother had calmed her fears as a child, but did she still believe it was all true when she had never seen any proof to her mother's claims herself… until today…

Sam had ascended the stairs, darting up the ladder and attempting to open the trapdoor. That's when Abigail let out a shriek. Fear and worry filled her mind. She pressed against the door in dismay. Her daughter had locked it from the inside. She pounded hard on the wood. "Abigail! Are you alright in there!? Abigail! I'm sorry about that. Please come unlock the door... I need to talk to you."

Abigail jumped at the first knock but turned her head to glare at the attic entrance.

Her mind was made up. Dearly hoping she was right about the wish-granting ghost (and half hoping she was wrong), Abbi walked nervously over to the single window in the attic. Pulling back the shudders, she opened the thick glass window.

A cool breeze and warm sunlight drifted over her face. Brushing a few strands of dark hair out of her eyes, she leaned out and took a deep breath.

"I WISH I COULD GO BACK IN TIME, TO MEET MY DAD, SO HE CAN HELP ME WITH MY POWERS!" she screamed, her voice echoing back to her by the trees and surrounding buildings. A few birds flew into the air, startled by her cry. A few people looked up at her from the street below, quizzical and amused at the same time.

Abbi's face flushed, and she ducked back into the room, feeling mortified and thankful at the same time. So, the whole ghost thing wasn't real?

That still didn't help her deal with the whole power's thing or the random glowing dude.

 _Dude? OH CRAP!_ She was starting to talk like her mom!

Abigail moaned in exasperation, flopping back into the beanbag, ignoring her mother's continued attempts to get her attention. The crunching of the bean bag had barely stopped when a chill ran up her spine again and her dark eyes flitted toward the window in alarm. She had forgotten to close it. Eerie green smoke was beginning to spill through the opening.

It twisted and writhed upon itself like clouds, glowing faintly. It rose upward, imploding to create a female figure, her dark hair covering one eye. Her wicked grin did nothing to calm Abbi's frightened state of mind.

"Ah... Phantom's spawn. I wondered why I recognized that voice."

Her purring voice sent the strong shiver of cold the rest of the way up the girl's spine and Abbi's breath became visible as a blue wisp. Abbi was frozen, her eyes stuck on this 'ghost' thing, her mind not really hearing what the ghost said.

The genie-looking ghost smirked in some strangely amused way.

"And you inherited his abilities. This will be interesting…"

 _Inherited?_ That caught her attention.

The genie ghost flung her hand toward the frightened teen, a green aura surrounding Abigail, lifting her into the air.

"Your desire is my command, Phantomess… So you have wished it…"

Abbi started to fade from sight, darkness clouding her vision. The scream that she had previously bit back was now released in full force, terror evident.

As the last of her form vanished, and her mind was just about to collapse into darkness, she heard a loud crash and the ghost's cruelly amused voice echoed around her skull.

"So it shall be!"

"ABIGAIL!"

Her conscious mind was no more.

 _ **DP DP DP**_

 _Thursday, June 5th, 1998_

"Is she going to pull out?" A young boy asked…

"I don't know," an older woman answered…

…

…

"Do you think she can get better?" A young girl questioned…

"If her coma doesn't get worse, probably," the same older woman replied…

…

…

"Can we see her?" the young boy spoke up again…

A long silence let her relax a bit before annoyance entered her mind once more.

"Yes…-But don't be long. I don't know how she will cope with loud noises," the older woman signed…

"Don't worry. We will be quiet," a second boy assured the woman.

Footsteps and the sound of a door closing hit her ears. More footsteps caused her to stir slightly, blissfully unaware of what had happened. Her memory rejected what had happened. The thick scent of hospital sanitizer hit her full in the face, but she did not react, perfectly content to ignore the smell and sleep.

"Danny… are you sure this is a good idea? Overshadowing may be able to wake people up, but you don't know what it will do to someone with a head injury," the young girl said, her voice oddly familiar to Abbi.

An aura of cold washed over the girl like a breeze despite her body being under the hospital blankets. She shifted in annoyance, a chill in her spine, ignorant of the fact she had been in a coma for the last few hours after materializing in midair and falling two stories.

Thank God for well-placed pools.

A second wave of cold swept over her body, coming from the hand that had been placed on her forehead. Abbi tried to move away, though she found she was still weak from whatever had happened. All she managed was a futile twitch to the side.

"I have to help her somehow," the first boy replied.

Then Abigail felt it. A presence like no other was seeping into her body, into her bones and mind. Her back arched upward, inhaling sharply as her dark eyes snapped open. She let out a snarl, closing her eyes she focused on the intruding presence.

She managed to identify the invader and attacked it with all the fierceness she could muster. Her body felt cold, but she ignored the discomfort, banishing the invader from her mind and body. A yelp of protest met her ears, as well as a loud _thud_ as someone was thrown against a wall.

"Danny!"

There was that voice again! Who was that?

Abigail tried to sit upright but found that her stomach muscles were unable to function properly. Instead she rolled to the side, nearly toppling an IV stand before being able to sit straight.

Glancing distastefully at the cold white décor, she turned her navy eyes toward the startled trio.

One of them was just getting to his feet, staring at her in shock. He possessed electric blue eyes and jet-black hair. The black strands fell over his face covering one eye.

Just like in his portrait.

Just like her _father's_ portrait.

 ** _Posted 6/25/18_**

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	3. Chapter 3: Hate in Sapphire Eyes

_**Chapter Three: Hate in Sapphire Eyes**_

 _Thursday, June 5th, 1998_

A few seconds later nurses were filing into the room, rushing to Abbi's side. One nurse ushered out the three clearly startled teenagers. They offered no resistance, though the blue-eyed boy glanced at her as he exited, shock and confusion still plain on his face.

A few hours - and several painful, made-up-on-the-spot explanations later - Abigail was excused from the hospital, assuring the nurses that she would go straight home and tell her mother what had happened. Though they were still quite suspicious of her, they accepted her phone number and address, not realizing they were invalid. The house probably wasn't built yet… at least if what she _thought_ happened _indeed_ _had_ happened.

Abbi exited the hospital gladly, she adjusted the spare shoes the nurses had found in the lost and found. They weren't her size, but she was thankful for them, glad to avoid walking with bare feet on sticks and slivers of mulch from the gardens lining the hospital sidewalk. She sighed, looking around warily for any sign of the black-haired teen and his companions.

For the most part she ignored the rest of Amity Park's occupants, so it came as a great shock when she found herself walking down Main Street with a box flying straight at her.

The thing was an ordinary cardboard box but surrounding it was a very unordinary eerie green energy. And it was traveling rather fast, directly for her head.

The fact it was a flying box only registered dimly to her. She was more concerned that it was close to smashing into her. She acted without thinking properly. Her fist lashed out with a speed that surprised even her. She punched the box right as it came to her, ripping a hole in its side.

The green energy faded from it as it fell to the ground, slumping to the side. It was completely empty.

"NO! I am the Box Ghost! Master of all things cardboard and square! How dare you defile one of my precious containers!"

Abigail looked toward the man who said this, curious at why he was so freaked out about her smashing a box. His blue skin seemed to glow somewhat; his pale eyes showed both frustration and concern. He was also floating. Suspended in the air with no visible means of support. This was a ghost? It looked nothing like how she pictured a ghost would look. And what was he shouting about boxes for?

The 'box ghost' flew towards the box, muttering incoherent curses while examining the limp form. He turned toward Abbi, who was still standing beside it, watching the strange 'ghost' with wide eyes. She flinched as he lifted his arms and shouted, "BEWARE!" expecting something more to come hit her, another box or-

A brilliant flash of light appeared from the sky and the ghost was sent tumbling across the pavement, smoking faintly.

"For once, could you please STAY in the Ghost Zone?"

A black and white blur shot past her field of vision. It's turbulence causing her to stumble forward a few steps. By the time she regained her balance, a cone of blue-tinted light engulfed the… box ghost… and was sucking him into a cylindrical container… She shifted her focus from the vanishing ghost to the one holding the container.

Her dark eyes flashed with recognition, and rage quickly flared up within her chest.

"You!" she snarled, clenching her fists in anger. The white-haired teen turned around to gaze at her warily, glowing green eyes flickering with curiosity. The white insignia on his chest confirmed her pervious conclusion, and the image of an older him leaning down towards her mother flashed through her mind.

"You rotten _lowlife_ _SCUM_!" she leapt toward him, rage sent waves of power surging through her veins, collecting in her hands.

Her slender form darted forward faster than humanly possible, her long fingernails raking across his chest and face before he could react. He yelped in pain, shooting backwards into the sky, fear flitted across his face. A look of relief only appeared when he found she could not follow him into the air.

Anger boiled inside her and she lashed her hand out, summoning the strange energy that she had sensed before.

A thick rope of green light shot towards the ghost boy. His relief changing to fright as it snapped around him, jerking him down from the sky before slamming him into the street below. A crackle of energy ran along its cords and his bright green eyes closed as he cried in pain, back arching as spasms of energy rushed through his body.

Slowly the ropes faded away, leaving him lying on the street. Struggling to recover from the shock, his gaze rose to meet her own. She was looking at him with such an intense hatred. Anger pulsed in her eyes as she glared down at him. A breeze rushed past them but neither moved as their hair whipped around their faces. The boy frozen from her stare. And Abbi staring right back, her balled fists emitted green sparks every few moments.

But she did nothing to him, struggling with a thought that presented itself to her. This boy, no matter who he grew to be… had no idea the reason for her anger. No memory of the act he would commit, the _crime_ \- because he had not done anything… not yet at least. He, here is this moment, was helpless… scared… and as much as Abbi hated it, innocent. And… he didn't know why she was angry.

Stuck in her thoughts Abbi didn't hear until it was too late, she jerked her head up as something powered up behind her. Whirling around Abbi was hit head-on by the blue beam of the container she had just watched the boy use. She shrieked in anger and fear as her image was distorted. Sucked in by the cone of light she too was sealed inside the cylinder.

"Thanks," Phantom murmured, still a bit shaken by the girl's attack.

"No problem," Sam replied quietly. She pushed a lock of her hair out of her violet eyes, glancing down at the thermos. "Was I imagining things… or was that girl the one who appeared out of thin air… and fell on top of you."

"The one that went into a coma for three hours, and expelled me like it was nothing?" Phantom rebutted, climbing to his feet.

Sam nodded, ignoring his attitude.

"I think so… She had the same aura," he answered as Phantom transformed back, the brilliant circles of light washing over his white and black clothing, replacing the hazmat suit with a white and red t-shirt and baggy jeans. His unruly white hair shifted to black, still stubbornly falling over one of his electric blue eyes.

"Who was she?" Tucker asked, his ever-present PDA in his hands.

"No idea…" Danny murmured, his gaze resting on the Fenton Thermos. "I've never seen her before in my entire life… Or afterlife."

"Ever seen her around the Ghost Zone? She must be a ghost since the Fenton Thermos worked on her," Tucker reasoned.

"No, not in Walkers Jail or anywhere else. But the Zone is a big place, I haven't explored the whole thing yet," Danny answered, taking the Fenton Thermos back from Sam.

"What should we do?" Sam asked, worry on her face.

"Well we can't leave her in here, we have to find a way to talk to her without her attacking us- well, attacking me- again," Danny answered, sighing.

"Then it's a good thing your parents are out of town for the weekend, isn't it?"

The three teens soon entered through the front door of Danny's house. It was a large building topped with a strange metal contraption and a brilliant neon sign sporting the words "Fenton Works". Most visitors said it reminded them of a classic UFO, with the gadgets and telescopes sticking out from the odd metallic surface.

"Jazz, you home?" Danny called after not finding his sister on the couch or at the kitchen table.

"Over here, Danny," Sam called, pulling a note from the fridge.

 _Gone to the library to study. Don't do anything_

 _too stupid while I'm gone, be back by dinner._

 _Love, Jazz_

 _P.S. if you need help with a ghost, just call me._

"Today's our lucky day," Sam said, passing the note to Danny who read it through.

"Why would I ask her for help with a ghost? She's more likely to put me in the Thermos than anything else," Danny said, crumpling up the note and tossing it away. Making a mental note to take the trash out before his parents came home, the three headed down the darkened staircase that led to his parent's basement lab.

"Hey Tuck, think you could get the lights?"

His dark-skinned buddy smiled mischievously, his blue-green eyes darting around before he replied.

"Depends… do you have any light-capturing gear around?"

Both Danny and Sam paused and looked back at him quizzically. Sam then groaned, slapping her forehead with her palm.

"That joke was worse than Danny's ghost fight puns, Tucker," she grumbled, before brushing past Danny toward the lab. The raven-haired boy looked hurt.

"Hey, my puns are great!"

"Keep telling yourself that, ghost child," Sam replied.

Tucker gave a small pout before turning around in search of the light switch.

Danny jumped down the last half dozen steps to land catlike on the basement floor. Rising from the crouch, he let his eyes adjust to the recently activated lights, turning to watch Tucker descend the steps in a more proper fashion. His pale blue eyes turned to the Fenton Portal, taking in the octagonal frame and black-and-orange stripes that covered the door. Long since over the emotions the sight of the portal used to bring, he slung the thermos off from his shoulder. He pulled the cap off and inserted the thermos into a circular fastener on the side panel of the portal before pressing the release button; he and his friends watched as the first few captured spirits swirled around for a moment on the surface, before being sent back to the Ghost Zone.

The teen carefully kept the bizarre new girl ghost inside of the Fenton Thermos, snapping it off the releasing port before she could escape. He capped it again, looking around. Sure enough, Sam had already activated the Fenton Lobster Pot, a large pot shaped device able to hold ghosts. Ghosts could get in, but they couldn't get out.

Sam crouched down, pressing a button on the gadget's instrument panel, causing the once clear cage to glow an eerie green.

Danny approached the Pot, attaching the Fenton Thermos to the port on the instrument panel and hitting the release button again. 'Release' flashed briefly in bold red letters on the thermos's small screen, as dark smoke began issuing into the containment area.

Abigail's eyes blazed with an earthly green light and she bared her teeth once more in defiance. Her neon gaze swept over the surrounding area, taking in a set of strange yellow-striped doors, tables filled with lab equipment the likes of which she had never seen before, an empty stairwell leading up into darkness and… the three teenagers from the hospital. Her gaze lingered on the girl; her jade eyes gazed at Abbi with something like anger. However, once Abbi's eyes landed upon the blue-eyed boy, the look on her face changed to curiosity and then just plain confusion.

She had already deciphered that something was NOT right, had a pretty good idea what it was, and the proof was standing in front of her now.

The girl looked too much like her mother, and the boy wearing the cap was freakishly close to her mom's closest friend, Tucker. Only they looked Abbi's age…

Abigail jerked back, sudden realization washed over her about the sheer enormity of what she had done. She remembered her foolish wish, the odd genie ghost and the darkness that accompanied its words.

So… she really did go back in time?

Abigail slumped back, stuck within the odd glowing device, she slumping to the floor, staring at the ceiling while vaguely wondering how she was supposed to get back to her own present. Sure, this was cool and all, but she really didn't know what to do now. She had read too many books, seen too many movies. And one rule about time was always present. _You don't mess with the past._

She didn't know what would happen now. If anything she might do or say were to change the future or perhaps she had already wiped out her own existence simply by arriving here. Scary thought right there...

She brushed a few strands of dark hair from her eyes, relaxing and letting the strange new ghostly energy drain from her slender form. The onlooking teens gasped, and Abbi let out a yelp as she fell through the strange field of energy that contained her, landing with a thud and a groan.

Danny blinked in shock as the black-haired _no-longer-a-ghost_ girl sat up slowly, rubbing her back.

Apparently, it was designed for ghosts… not humans.

Sam was the first to act, grabbing one of the ecto-weapons from a nearby table and pressing down the button. Green foam spurted out the gun, hitting the girl full in the face.

She toppled over backwards, coughing angrily and attempted to wipe the goo from her eyes. When she finally did, her dark gaze shot upward, quite disgruntled at getting that nasty bubbling gunk in her hair. But she came face-to-face with the Fenton Thermos, the blue glow painfully bright in her eyes. She shielded her eyes from the light as Sam pushed the activation on the Thermos… and again… and again. Nothing happened…

The ultra-recyclo-vegetarian goth growled in anger. Chucking the thermos over her shoulder she began looking for another weapon. The strange girl watched as Sam moved from table to table. Then she gazed up with confusion in her eyes, focusing on Danny. Tucker stood beside Danny in silence, mostly in shock.

Taking a deep breath Danny raked his fingers through his ebony hair, trying to grasp what was happening but before he could think of anything, he was jumping forward to stop Sam before she blasted the girl with the Fenton Bazooka. At point-black range. Grabbing the Bazooka from Sam he placed it on the table. Once he was sure Sam wouldn't just grab the next weapon, he turned his attention to the girl.

His blue eyes landed on Abbi's still-crouched form, goo still dripping from her hair, yet finding something eerily familiar about her… something that he just could not place.

He opened his mouth and asked softly, "Who are you?"

 ** _Posted 7/5/18_**

Well there we are. From here on out the story will be fully written by me and my crazy brain. Emphasis on crazy. I hope you enjoyed it.

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	4. Chapter 4: I'm Lilith

Here is the new chapter and the very first written exclusively by my crazy brain. I had originally planned this to be from Abbi's POV. It just turned into Danny's POV. But I didn't want to lose what part I had written from Abbi's so after three different attempts you get this interesting little chapter.

Normal text is Danny's POV and _any full paragraphs in_ _italics will be Abbi's POV and her thought process._

 _ **Chapter Four: I'm… Lilith**_

 _Thursday, June 5th, 1998_

"Who are you?" Danny asked, crouching down to have the odd girl at eye level. She sat there, goo dropping off her hair and clothes, confusion in her eyes that was slowly turning to defiance that looked oddly similar to Sam's defiant look. The ghost girl narrowed her eyes at him, then at his friends before opening her mouth to speak.

 _Abbi didn't want to be angry at the boy she knew to be her young father, so she directed her anger at the two teens she did know._

"Why should I answer you? I don't know who you all are, and you kidnapped me!" she shouted, her gaze at Sam and Tucker more than Danny.

"You aren't from around here… are you?" Tucker asked.

"I'm not answering that until you tell me who you are," the girl snapped back.

"Look here you-" Sam started but Danny cut her off.

"I'm Danny, Danny Fenton. These are my friends Sam and Tucker. And you're in my parents' basement lab if that is your next question," Danny answered her. "So… could you tell us your name?"

She looked oddly like Dani, Danny thought, but older. Surely Vlad hadn't tried to clone him again… hadn't he learned his lesson the last time?

 _Abbi sat where she had fallen, staring up at the teenage version of her father. Sure, Abbi was prepared for it but still… hearing the boy introduce himself as 'Danny Fenton' was a shock. She couldn't deny it any more, no matter how much she wanted to. Hearing him say this was her grandparent's basement lab was a surprise though. She wondered what they did to have such odd equipment._

 _Oh right, her name…_

"My name is… Lilith, but I go by 'Lilly'," she replied, sitting up straighter and looking around the basement curiously.

 _Abbi inwardly cringed when she introduced herself as Lilith, technically it was her name, just not her first name. But she couldn't very well shout out, 'Hi! I'm your future daughter who has never really met my father, nice weather we are having.'_

"Okay, Lilly then, did you get here from the Zone? Or did you get to Amity Park from the Human Plain?" Danny asked. This caught her attention, confusing her again.

"The Zone? Human Plain? I don't get it… what are you talking about?" she asked, looking back at Danny.

 _What on earth is he talking about?_

She was telling the truth… he could tell. He didn't know how but he knew she wasn't lying about not understanding his terms. He opened his mouth to respond but Sam cut in.

"Why did you attack Phantom!" Sam shouted, anger in her voice. Danny looked back at her and saw her hands were balled up in fists.

"W-who?" Lilly flinched, gazing up at Sam in surprise.

"Phantom," Tucker answered, placing a hand on Sam's shoulder to try and calm her down, not that it would work. "He's the ghost you attacked. The one with white hair in a black and white Hazmat suit… The one I believe you call a 'rotten lowlife scum'." Tucker explained, snickering.

"That thing has a name?*" Lilly said.

This made Danny flinch, but Lilly didn't see this, her eyes still on Sam and Tucker.

"That was only the second time I've ever seen that… ghost. The first time I laid eyes on it, it did something so vile… I really don't want to talk about it…" Lilly explained vaguely.

"Oh? And what was that?" Sam retorted, her arms folded across her chest and her big combat boot tapping impatiently on the lab floor.

"Just… things…" Lilly replies but her expression was hard. Clearly what she was remembering wasn't a pleasant memory.

 _Well I can't really say it's because he kisses you in twenty or so years…_

 _Why is mom so protective of that ghost?!_

"Did you see him in the Ghost Zone first? You being a ghost and all," Sam asked, angrily. "Or was it around town? Him beating up the other ghosts maybe?"

 _Wait… did mom just call me a ghost?_

Lilly gazed at Sam in shock, her head slowly starting she shake, "I-I'm not – a _ghost_. I'm alive! I'm not dead! My heart is still beating!" she ended with a shout, her hand resting over her chest as if to make sure she was telling the truth.

 _I'm not right? My heart is beating! Sure, I did some weird things, but I'm still alive! Right?!_

"Oh yes you are to a ghost, otherwise the ghost equipment wouldn't work on you," Sam rebutted.

"Ghost equipment?" Lilly asked incredulously.

"Let me explain, Sam," Danny cut in, standing up. "We are in my parents' ghost lab where they examine ghosts and experiment with ectoplasm. My parents build ghost hunting equipment like the Fenton Thermos you were originally sucked into. And this Fenton Lobster Pot that is designed to hold ghosts in and not let them out. You were contained in it when we first let you out of the thermos but after you… calmed down… you fell out of the pot." Danny gestured to the large clear dome she still lay beside.

 _Her father explained about the lab she was in, the odd thermos she was sucked up in. It was all so Sci-Fi… 'My grandparents were ghost hunters? Why has mom never told me this? What's so secret about it? She was always telling me about the supernatural, why didn't she tell me this?'_

"So, either you are contaminated with enough ectoplasm that the equipment works on you, but I don't think that's a possibility… or you are part ghost yourself… does any of that ring any bells? Maybe a you've been in a big lab like this before? Or came across a powerful ghost we haven't encountered that did something to you?" Danny asked, almost fearful it was the latter… 'What ghost could be powerful enough to cause a human to be sucked into the thermos?'

 _Contaminated? Part ghost? They are acting like this is normal table talk!?_

Lilly just stared at him in complete disbelief. Her brain apparently trying to absorb all he'd just said. When she finally did get some words out, it was not to answer his questions.

"Your parents are ghost hunters? And experiment with ectoplasm? Seriously?" she asked, gazing up at the three of them from where she still sat on the floor.

"Yes, they run Fenton Works," Danny explained. "You really aren't from around here… Everyone knows my parents." 'So, it probably wasn't a powerful ghost, that's a relief.'

"This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder," she mumbled.

 _Abbi gazed around the room with new eyes for what she was seeing. And Fenton Works… why does that sound familiar?_

"What's with the big door?"

Danny turns to look at the Fenton Ghost Portal. "So, you've never seen one of these before? Anywhere?" Vlad's portal was the same design as his parents. If she was created by Vlad, then she would have seen his portal at his lab.

"No, why? What's behind it?"

"It's a portal to the Ghost Zone, when it's open it looks like a swirling mass of green and black. Ring any bells?" Danny continued, beginning to think Vlad didn't have anything to do with her appearance after all. 'But then how does she have ghost powers?'

 _A portal to the world of ghosts… no wonder mom never talks about my grandparents…_

Lilly only shakes her head, her long black tresses falling to obscure her face a little. Goo still dripping from some of the strands. Noticing the goo, she picked up a lock of her hair and examined the glowing green substance. Suddenly her eyes went wide.

"Is this… that ectoplasm you were talking about? It's not going to do anything to me, is it?" she asked. "What a moment? Is this like… ghost blood! Is this blood all over me!?" she shouted, scrabbling to her feet but slipping on the puddle that surrounded her.

"Careful there!" Danny gasps, seeing her slipping and headed for a painful encounter with the not so soft floor. (He should know, he's been slammed into it often enough.) He darted to her and caught her, preventing her from falling before leading her away from the puddle. "I wouldn't call it blood… no… not after what… never mind. But no, it won't hurt you in any way."

 _He_ wouldn't _call it blood? So, it is blood! Eww eww eww!_

He released her from his grip when he was sure she could stand on her own, the goo dripping from her hair and clothes to the floor. "So gross," she groaned, trying to wipe it off like water after a shower.

"So, if you've never been in the Ghost Zone, any idea's where you got the ghost powers? The ones you used against Phantom," Danny clarified when she gave him an odd look.

"Oh… those things… I've never done anything like that before… it was an odd feeling for sure," she murmured. She gazed down at her hands, examining them, as if expecting the glowing green energy to reappear.

 _What am I going to say…? 'I think I inherited them?' that would only bring up who my parents are, and we are so not going there… So, what do I say? Okay Abbi think fast! Come on! He did ask if I'd been in a lab like this before…_

Suddenly she froze. Her eyes darted around frightfully, looking in the corners and dark spaces in the room.

 _Time for an impromptu made up story, but keep it vague, I can't go messing up details I might forget I mentioned… what to-_

"What is it?" Danny asked, worried by her actions.

 _Okay, okay, um…_

"I…I woke up one day a few weeks ago…" she started. Her eyes never meeting his, never focusing on anything in the room as she continued to speak. "…in a strange place, an odd building of some sort, I was trapped there… but I managed to escape and after that I found out I had these powers… I can float and become invisible… I have no idea how… I've only managed each thing a couple times…"

This got all their attention. Danny exchanged looks of shock with Sam and Tucker. Sam's arms fell to her sides.

"This place, what was it like?" the halfa asked carefully, not wanting to bring up bad memories but he needed to know, to have some idea who this possible new enemy might be.

"I… don't remember much, my… memories are faulty around all that time… I try not to think about it…" she explained, one hand grasping her other arm, _trying to protect herself from the memory_ , Danny figured.

 _Why do I feel so bad about lying to them!? Oh right, because I'm lying to my father, the man I've defended my whole life against people who call him a rotten lowlife scum…_

"What about the people there? Did you see any? Were they men? Women? Maybe huge guys in white outfits. Or were there cages of different animal ghosts and a lab like this one? Maybe?" Danny asked gently, not wanting to upset the girl further.

' _He's being so kind about this…' the thought struck her hard. 'Is he making up these people or do they really exist how he's describing them… and how would he know? Well, at least he's giving me details, I just have to agree with some of them…'_

"White outfits?" she asked, gazing at him. Her eyes went wide, and she nodded slowly. "Y-yes, that's what they wore…. Bi-big guys in white coats…" she whispered, turning away from him to look at the floor once more.

 _Was that the right detail to pick? What if that was a made-up detail to throw me off?_

"Maybe, I don't know, the memories aren't always the same when I think back to it…"

Silence fell on the room for a moment, taking in what Lilly had said.

' _I said something wrong… didn't I? Crap… they'll know I'm lyi-'_

"The Guys in White," Sam growled, her fists once again balled up.

' _The Guys in what?!'_

"Looks like it," Danny agreed quietly, turning to look at his two friends.

"But why?" Tucker asked, "And how? Are they experimenting on ghosts or people? Or both? You don't think… you know?"

Danny saw him give a small jerk of his head towards the Ghost Portal.

"I don't know Tuck… Maybe? But let's hope not. We don't know anything for certain right now," Danny replied.

"Who are you guy's talking about?" Lilly asked, incredibly confused.

Team Phantom shared a concerned look before Sam and Tucker looked to Danny. Sighing Danny turned back to Lilly. "The Guys in White are a government organization set up to capture and destroy ghosts. They were set up after ghost started terrorizing the town and they have a base near here. They aren't very good at catching ghosts, but their equipment works rather well. Maybe they've been experimenting on ghosts all this time and we didn't know it. It wouldn't be the first-time experiments with ghosts went extremely wrong."

' _There is a government organization that captures ghost… this sounds like a bad conspiracy theory. Or a TV show, either one. What does he mean experiments gone wrong? What experiments? One of his parents experiments maybe?'_

Now it was Danny's turn to ball up his fists. Vlads treatment of Dani fresh in his mind. "Don't people realize by now experimenting on ghosts can end up badly?" he growled, feeling the need to punch something and wondering if the box ghost would make a reappearance.

 _Her father looked so angry about this experiment… but why? What was it or they about?_

"What do you mean-" but Sam's question was cut off by a shout from the stairs.

"Danny? I'm home! I got some pizza!" Jazz shouts down from the kitchen where they can hear stuff being shuffled around and a large bag thumping on the ground as well.

 _That almost sounded like…_

"Danny? Are you in the lab? Is something wrong?" Before any of them could respond she began descending the stairs. "Was there a fight with a ghost? Why didn't you call me, you know I can help – um – hello?"

Jazz stops on the bottom stair gazing at their little group of four. Her eyes locked on the new comer, before gazing from her to Danny and back. "So… who's this, Danny?"

 _Aunt Jazz_ …

 ** _Posted 7/15/18_**

You found one little * in the story. This line is a movie quote and should be read with an British accent to get the reference. Can anyone guess it?

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	5. Chapter 5: Ectoplasm and Everything

_**Chapter Five: Ectoplasm and Everything**_

 _Thursday, June 5th, 1998_

Abbi couldn't believe her eyes. The young woman with long red hair stared from the bottom of the stairs at their little group, looking from Abbi to Danny and back. "So… who's this, Danny?"

"Jazz, um," Danny looked between the two girls before answering his sister. "This is Lilly. Lilly, this is my sister, Jazz."

"It's nice to meet you…" Abbi said, gazing at her aunt.

Aunt Jazz really hadn't changed much over the years, she still had long red hair held back by a blue headband. Her clothing was a bit less sophisticated but that might be more due to this being some twenty years in the past and thus the fashion sense was different. But her eyes held the same look Abbi had come to expect from her aunt; curious, calculating, a bit like being x-rayed. Aunt Jazz was the only member of her father's side of the family that Abbi had ever met. She lived on the other side of Amity Park, and although the town was not large, Abbi had rarely seen Aunt Jazz outside of birthdays or holidays.

When she did see her aunt, the woman never mentioned her own parents - Abbi's grandparents. She knew they still lived in the state, but they never came to town to visit. Abbi was sure they hadn't been to Amity Park for as long as Abbi had lived there. Aunt Jazz never showed her pictures of them, talked about them, explained why they didn't come around. Not even when Abbi asked her. That had been many years ago, Abbi might have only been eight or nine. All her aunt had said was that they didn't travel much, and that coming to Amity Park was too painful. Abbi wondered if they lived in an assisted living home. Or maybe in a nut house and no one wanted to tell Abbi the truth. Either way, Abbi had learned early on not to ask about her grandparents.

Either set of them, actually.

She had a few memories of her maternal grandparents. Going to visit them in a big house across the state line. It was very well kept. Very clean and bright. Nothing like her home with its dark carpets and curtains, mid evil decoration and occasional locked and secretive room. Her grandparents were bubbly people, at least she assumed they were, by the look of their home, clothing and the many pictures of garden parties they hosted. But should Abbi and her mother ever come to visit they were cold and distant. They looked at Abbi with a mixture of repulsion and shame, as if having her for a granddaughter was a stain on their family name. Abbi was happy she didn't have their last name. Sure, she never saw her father, but his sister at least cared about Abbi and treated her kindly. No matter what her classmates said about her father, Abbi was glad to be a Fenton.

It didn't take but a couple trips to see her mothers parents that Sam Fenton decided they didn't need to waste the time to visit them. Abbi could tell her mother didn't have a good relationship with her parents and adding Abbi to the mix only separated the three even farther. Abbi and her mother hadn't been to see them since Abbi was six.

But Aunt Jazz had been to ever birthday, every Christmas and more thanksgivings then Abbi could count. They always had a small gathering. Tucker came with his wife and kids, Aunt Jazz brought her twins, a son and daughter. They were all much younger then Abbi so she didn't really play with them, but it was nice to have some form of family on the holidays. And if Abbi thought back hard enough she could even remember a few holidays when her father had been there. The images were blurry, only consisting of small snapshots of time, but he had been there, at least a couple of times.

Her father…

Abbi's brain snapped back to the present, or rather, the past… or was it the present? The whole time travel thing would take a lot of time to get used to.

Her Aunt Jazz continued to gaze at her and it didn't take long for Abbi to feel uncomfortable with all the staring. She dropped her eyes back to her goo covered clothing, remembering again what a mess she must look like. She started again to attempt to wipe the stuff away, choosing to focus on her task then the people in front of her. But the goo was persistent and was not one to come off easily. It clung to her black shirt, soaking it in a sticky residue that she was learning to dislike more and more as she attempted to remove the goo. Her hair hung in clumps, clothes dripped green, not even the over large shoes had escaped the goo. She could feel the goo dripping into them and soaking her socks.

"Why is she covered in ectoplasm?" Aunt Jazz asked. When Abbi looked up she saw her Aunt had placed her hands on her hips and was glaring at trio of friends. Her teenage mother had the grace to appear ashamed of her actions while teen Danny and Tucker had no problem ratting Sam out to the older teen without a second thought. Jazz sighed. "Do I even want to know?"

All four of them shook their heads. Jazz sighed again before turning to Abbi. "Well, Lilly, if you want to follow me, I can get you a change of clothes and help get the ectoplasm out of your hair. I've had plenty of practice with the gunk, I know a few tricks."

This comment shocked Abbi. Never had she heard her aunt ever talk about the paranormal, and let's face it, you can't get much more paranormal the ectoplasm. Her aunt was always going on about mental health and how a mind interprets everything you see, everything that is done to you and blah blah blah. Abbi gave up long before she can ever remember caring about that her aunt told her, choosing to toon the woman out and play with whatever game she had with her that day, or occasionally helping with her cousins once she was old enough.

The red-headed teen motioned for Abbi to follow her and Abbi reluctantly complied, gazing with apprehension to her teenage mother and father. Yet they did nothing but watch her go, questions still brewing in their eyes.

Once they were out of sight and out of earshot her aunt- well… _Jazz_ started chatting with her, and Abbi couldn't help but listen to every word.

"Sorry about whatever experiment blew up on you. My parents aren't always the best at inventing. Mom's great but dad can be a bit over excitable and miss crucial components of their ghost equipment. I've lost track of the number of shirts I've had ruined from Fenton gadgets blowing up near me. Ever since ghosts started appearing in Amity Park, they haven't stopped inventing. The Ghost-Babber, the Boo-merang, the Fenton Weasel. Some of them work really well… others… not so much," Jazz explained, leading Abbi up to the top floor and to what Abbi assumed to be Jazz's bedroom. "Hold on a second, I'll get you a change of clothes, maybe if we're lucky the ectoplasm will come out of your clothes."

Abbi listened as Jazz told a few of her funnier ectoplasm related messes. Or more, her brother Danny's, which she seemed to very much enjoy remembering. "There was one time they strapped him down to a table and tried to 'spin the crazy out of him' because he claimed he could see a ghost that they couldn't. Well it turned out there was a ghost there that they couldn't see. Still it was funny." Jazz explained laughing. "They didn't hurt him or anything!" Jazz continued, seeing Abbi's shocked and slightly horrified face. "I convinced them to stop before too long, he was a bit windswept but that was all. He can almost laugh about it now… Almost."

Shuffling around her room as she spoke Jazz produced a dark purple t-shirt and capris jeans. "You can change in the bathroom. Just put your hair up for now and I'll help you when you've changed. And you can fill the tub with warm water to soak your clothes in. Rub some of this into the stains, it should help."

Jazz smiled warmly at Abbi, handing her the clothes and a bottle of – Abbi blinked at the bottle – Fenton Detergent. "My parents name anything they invent 'Fenton'," Jazz explained. "We even have the 'Fenton Anti-Creep Stick' which means it's a normal baseball bat with the word 'Fenton' on it." Jazz shrugged as if that was completely normal. Abbi was beginning to question what kind of people her grandparents were. Jazz simply pointing out the bathroom down the hall, moving on in the conversation. "I'll get my hair supplies ready while you change."

"Right, I'll… go change…," Abbi agreed quietly. Slowly she walked down the hall and entered the bathroom where she shut and locked the door. She placed the clothes on the counter and took a deep breath before turning to look at herself in the mirror.

The face she saw looked different then she remembered. Not because of the ectoplasm. No. It was in her eyes. A revelation had occurred. Her eyes opened, so to speak. This morning she had been her normal self, getting out of bed to enjoy a summer day with her mother. Now she was some 20 years in the past, her grandparents hunted ghosts, invented crazy weapons – and apparently detergent. Her aunt and father knew who knows how much about ghosts and ectoplasm. Ghosts attacked their little town on a daily basis and the whole town agrees/knows/acknowledges that ghosts existed. Oh, _and_ she appears to have ghost powers, let's not forget _that_ little development.

"Yep, totally not a normal day…"

 _ **DP DP DP**_

 _Tuesday, June 5th, 2018_

"ABIGAIL!" the white-haired man from the kitchen phased through the trap door to the attic just in time to see his only child vanish in a cloud of greed smoke, a quiet scream the only indication she had been there. At the window floated Desiree, the wishing ghost, laughing at the place Abigail had just vanished from.

"DESIREE! What have you done!" Phantom's voice boomed through the attic, piercing her with a cold green stare. Behind him Phantom could hear Sam pounding on the trap door, still shouting Abbi's name.

"What? I've only granted a wish, that is all," the genie smiled, throwing her long black hair over her shoulder in an indifferent gesture, though her confidence seemed to have faded some.

"What wish! What did she wish for!" Phantom shouted. He waved a hand in the direction of the stairs and unlocking the trap door with his telekinesis, allowing Sam to enter the room. The trap door slammed against the floor as Sam appeared.

"ABBI! Abbi! Where is she!" Sam shouted, her eyes swept over the room before landing on Desiree. "What did you do!? What have you done with my daughter!"

"I granted her her wish, exactly as she wanted," Desiree explained, her ghost tail whipped back and forth as the wind continued to blow through the open window.

"What was her wish?" Phantom growled, tired of the ghost repeating herself over again. The temperature in the room started to drop as his rage boiled beneath the surface. Sam refused to let the cold affect her, while she wasn't used to it the way she used to be, she could still ignore it. And she had a good reason to ignore the cold air. She stood beside her husband, her fists clenched at her side, eyes focused on the wishing ghost she hadn't seen in over fourteen years.

"Her wish was for her to return to the past, to meet her father and have him teach her about her new powers. At least, I assume they are new to her?" Desiree replied, looking from Phantom to Sam and back again.

"No!" Sam gasped staring wide-eyed at Desiree, shock turning to fear.

"Bring her back, Desiree!" Phantom shouted, his voice echoing through the attic room.

"I can't do that," Desiree replied, her tone indifferent to the halfa's shouts.

"Then I wish for you to return my daughter to this day and time!" he shouted again, praying that it could be done. But he almost expected her response before she opened her mouth.

"I can not do that. My wishes only effect those in our time. As Abigail is no longer in our time I cannot retrieve her or return her to you," Desiree explained. "My powers over time are very limited."

Fear shown in Sam's eyes as Desiree's words sunk in. "Danny! What are we going to do! If she goes back in time it could change everything! She could be stuck there forever! We might never get her back!" Sam cried, falling to her knees in the plush carpet of the attic.

"Oh, it's not a matter of 'if' she went back. She is back there now as we speak, so to say," the genie replied. "Now if you'll excuse me I have more wishes to grant."

"You're not going anywhere Desiree," Phantom said coldly.

"Oh? And why not?"

"You are going to send me back in time to retrieve her, right now!"

"It can't be done. You already exist in that time," Desiree began. "Should I send you back there, whether Abigail was there or not, you would end up being pulled like a magnate to your younger form and joining with him. You would cease to exist as you are now and you would never find a way to return to this time, let alone help Abigail return. Though that might not be such a bad thing now that I think of it." The genie ghost thought aloud. Her answers only caused the halfa's anger to rise to the point where green power flooded and surrounded his fists.

"Desiree," he voice shook the attic softly.

It wasn't until this display that Desiree showed any kind of hesitation. An angry and yelling halfa was one thing. A halfa that drew on his power, that was something she did not want to mess with. Phantom had grown in strength over the past decade. And even before then he had more power then her. He was not someone she truly wanted to mess with. Tease, yes, go head to head against, no.

"Sam! Abbi! Hello!" the shout come from the bottom floor of the home and floated up. Hushed footsteps echoed along with the slamming of the front door. "Hello!?"

"We're up here Tucker!" Phantom shouted, his eyes not leaving Desiree's. "In the attic!" Phantom knew only too well that 'up here' in this house could mean just about anywhere.

The three beings waited, frozen, as Tucker made his way upstairs, not so quietly either. Boots pounded on the steps as he rushed through the mansion, trying to remember where the attic entrance was at. Finally, the dark-skinned, techno geek of their trio appeared panting at the trap door. Puffing out breathes and bending over his knees to catch his breath. The red beret still adored his head as it had all though high school, granted it was a newer style that matched his impressive change of clothes. Having been preparing for work Tucker was dressed in a red dress shirt, tie with dark gray dress pants. The suit jacket apparently forgotten in his haste to get to the Fenton's mansion. It was respectable attire for the head of technical development at Vladco. His two best friends teased him for years after he started 'working for the enemy.'

"Man, I'm out of shape," he puffed. Looking up Tucker saw the group of three was not the group of three he had expected. "Where's Abbi? What is Desiree doing here?" he asked. His eyes widening moments after laying eyes on the genie ghost. No ghost had been seen in Amity Park for fourteen years. At least, none that had been reported.

"Abbi made a wish, Tuck," Sam cried, tears streaming down her face, a sight Tucker never expected to see again. "She's gone back to the past, and we can't bring her back."

Tucker's eyes sought out Phantoms, asking for conformation of this fact. The anger in his best friends eyes was enough to tell him that what Sam said was true.

"No…" he breathes, gazing at the small group in front of him. "Wha-What can we do? Isn't there anything at all?"

"Desiree claims there is nothing she can do but I'm not giving up so easily," Phantom replied, turning back to the genie ghost who had once again turned towards the window to leave. "Desiree, you will remain here until you are dismissed. Is that understood?" his voice stern and commanding.

Black hair froze mid-swing as she was caught in her escape attempt. Her shoulders slumped as she hovered and turned back to face the trio of life-long friends. Sighing, she bowed to Phantom.

"Yes, my King."

 ** _Posted 7/25/18_**

Yes, I'm a 'Danny is Ghost King' supporter. I can't help it! He did defeat the Ghost King after all!

So what did you think? Let me know! And did you catch the movie quote?

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	6. Chapter 6: Common Occurances

_**Chapter Six: Common Occurrences**_

 _Thursday, June 5th, 1998_

Abbi sat with the four teens at the kitchen table eating a pizza Jazz had ordered while she was changing her clothes. Turned out the hair products Jazz had work very well on getting the goo out of hair. "Trial and error," Jazz had said. "Lots of it."

Feeling slightly cleaner, though not in her own clothing, Abbi was able to relax a bit more around this group of her de-aged family members. Jazz and herself had talked about the goo/ectoplasm and other accidents involving the glowing green substance and her parents while cleaning up but nothing beyond that. Nothing personal, and Abbi was grateful for this, but she knew it couldn't last long. And by the blatant staring she was getting from Jazz she knew it wouldn't be long.

There had been a fight at the very beginning of the meal when her mother… ok, _Sam_ , had worried that Jazz ordered a pizza with meat on it and then Tucker had feared that Jazz had ordered a pizza without meat on it. Jazz quickly remedied the problem by announcing she had ordered both Sam and Tucker a separate pizza so they both got what they wanted. It was a 'fight' Abbi was very used to hearing from the adult Sam and Tucker. Really the two hadn't changed much at all in that regard.

The pizza was divvied up, pop poured, and bellies filled while sitting in semi comfortable silence. Until…

"So, are you new to town, Lilly? I've never seen you around before. How did you meet my brother and his friends?" Jazz finally broke the silence. The three friends also turned their attention to Abbi, having never gotten an answer out of her while down in the lab.

"I'm… just visiting some family… Yeah… I kinda got lost when my… cousin and I were exploring the town…" Abbi said, trying to sound embarrassed rather than like she was making it all up on the spot. Even if it wasn't completely a lie, it still left out many crucial details about… well _everything_.

"Who is your cousin? Maybe we know them. What part of town are they from?" Jazz asked, always the helpful student even outside of school.

"Oh, well, that a problem… I don't really know where they live," she hung her head in 'shame' trying to hide any signs that she was lying again. "My mother might have told me the address once, but I don't remember, but I think they live around the west side of town? Maybe. I can't be sure."

"What are their names?" Jazz pressed.

"My cousin is… Luisa, Luisa Carter," Abbi said, frantic to think of a name for her imaginary cousin. Hopefully Carter was a common enough name that they would have difficulty finding them. It would be a bit too obvious to use 'Smith'.

"That doesn't ring any bells…" Jazz murmurs, thinking though the Casper High student body.

"It-it wouldn't… she's homeschooled…?" Abbi tries, hoping Jazz would give up trying to think of someone who doesn't actually exist.

"That isn't going to make finding them very easy but when has anything been easy in Amity Park," Jazz laughed. "Either way, it's getting dark out, so we can't go looking for them now. Too many ghosts appear at night for the streets to be safe. Even if there weren't ghosts to worry about it is just too dark out anyway. So, where did you meet my brother, you never mentioned."

"Oh, um… I-I guess, um, I was just walking around downtown looking for a familiar face when this ghost attacked me…" Abbi replied, she really didn't want to go into the whole 'waking up in a hospital' story. So instead she skipped ahead a bit, glad she could tell part of the truth at least.

"Yea, Sam and I found her being attacked by the Box Ghost, then Phantom appeared and caught old boxy," Tucker explained. "You know, the usual for Amity Park. After that Sam and I brought her with us to Fenton Works. And that's pretty much it."

"Really? Wow, probably not the easiest thing to go through being from out of town," Jazz looked at Abbi, a small bit of pity in her gaze. "Must have been scary for you, did you even know ghosts were real before coming here? Or did you think the stories were made up?"

Abbi contemplated this. It was a bit odd to have found herself being attacked by a ghost. And the way the teens made it sound, this was the most common place thing to happen. Funny how she had lived in this town her whole life and never once had she seen a ghost before today. "It was surprising for sure," Abbi began. "A box flying at my head out of nowhere and some floating blue guy shouting about boxes and cardboard. It was really weird, and you say this happens a lot?"

"Oh yes, every day, twice a day. Maybe three times if they get really determined. But Phantom always comes along and saves the day. He's captured every ghost that has attacked this town, day and night," Jazz explains, a large bit of pride in her voice as she smiles at the other three teens sitting at the table. "Ghosts have been common day in Amity Park for many months now," Jazz continued, returning her gaze to Abbi. "We get animal ghosts, humanoid ghosts, and some ghosts that you can't even tell what they are supposed to be. We even have ghosts that can transform into other shapes. A humanoid girl ghost morphed into a dragon when she got too mad, she ended up attacking the high school. They have very similar actions and thought processes to normal animals or humans for the most part. I'm doing my college entrance thesis paper on ghost envy. Studying the envy in ghosts, about ghosts and for ghostly abilities is very interesting."

Jazz said all this so matter-of-factly it was crazy. Abbi was sure her face held disbelief and doubt, probably a bit of shock too.

"What is ghost envy? And how is it that any of this seems normal? Does everyone in town just goes on with their lives as if nothing is happening? And isn't that Phantom thing a ghost too? Why would he capture his own kind? How has none of this gotten out to the rest of the country?" _And why has no one mentioned ghosts in the last fourteen years if everyone knew they were real and existed. They don't even mention this stuff in school…_

"The ghosts stay in town for the most part, there might be one or two that venture outside of the town, the Wisconsin ghost is from out of state but he appeared to have moved to Amity Park as of late," Jazz continued on. Abbi was becoming a bit overwhelmed by it all and Jazz could see it in her eyes. "I'll start from the beginning for you. It must be very odd for you to suddenly be thrown into a city full of ghosts. I don't think Amity gets many tourists after all, so no one outside the town really knows or more believes what they get told. So a couple of months ago…"

Danny, Sam and Tucker rose from the table and deposited their plates in the sink. They were even able to slip out of the room without the two girls noticing. Lilly was so focused on everything ghost that Jazz was able to keep her full attention. And knowing Jazz this would be excellent research for her thesis paper. 'Getting into the mind of an outsider' or something like that.

Danny could hear her going on about the ghost portal and their mom and dad with his enhanced hearing. Knowing that this girl held some sort of ghost abilities he kept pushing Sam and Tucker away from the kitchen until they were up in his room and he could no longer hear their discussion.

"So, what is up with her, anyway?" Tucker asked, plopping down on the floor and leaning his back against Danny's bed.

"No idea, she acts like she's never seen a ghost in her life, but she clearly knew Phantom the second she saw him," Danny said, avoiding saying 'me' in case the Lilly girl could still hear them. It was doubtful, but you can never be too cautious. Fighting with Plasmius had taught him enough about that.

"Yea, I wonder what she saw that made her hate him so much," Sam murmured, sitting down backwards on Danny's computer chair.

"Well, to be honest, half the town still hates Phantom," Tucker reasoned. "So that isn't all that surprising."

"They don't like him, no," Danny agreed. "But the pure hate in her eyes was unlike anything the town has ever shown Phantom. The only other person I've seen with that amount of hate is Vlad hating my dad."

"Wow," Tucker's eyebrows were almost hiding under his hat when he looked over at Danny who was currently floating cross-legged in the empty space above the rug on his bedroom floor.

"We need to find out what she thought she saw, maybe then we can rectify any misunderstanding," Danny murmured, his chin rested on his palm.

"Why do we need to fix it? She's only in town for a little while, chances are Jazz will find her family tomorrow and we never see her again," Sam said, grumbling a bit.

"You really don't like her, do you?" Danny asked.

"I just think she is hiding too much from us, a lot of things. She's probably lying about half the stuff she's told us," Sam complained.

The two teen boys glanced at each other before looking back at Sam.

"This doesn't have anything to do with the fact that she turned up her nose at your offer of your ultra-recyclo-vegetarian pizza like she's been insulted, does it?" Danny asked.

"No!" she shouted, glaring at the two of them.

 _Sure, it doesn't,_ Danny thought, rolling his eyes and shaking his head good naturedly at Sam.

Said girl proceeded to throw a text book at the floating teen who turned intangible at the last second, allowing the book to pass harmlessly through his body.

The loud thump of it hitting the floor however was heard by the two girls still down in the kitchen.

"Are you okay up their Danny?" Jazz shouted, more than a little worry in her voice.

"Yeah, Jazz, everything is fine," Danny shouted back. The laughter in his voice calming her fears about a ghost attack.

"Well, it looks like you will be staying here for the night if that works for you, Lilly. We can pull out the camping cot for you to sleep on in my room if that would be okay. We don't have a spare bedroom and the couch isn't comfortable for sleeping what so ever," Jazz gave Abbi a bright smile. "It can be a slumber party," she said, laughing.

"Um… sure, okay…" Abbi agreed, a just a little bit worried about what she might be getting herself into.

 ** _Posted 8/5/18_**

A note for the reviewers: The idea of Danny being Ghost King is purely fan-made, it doesn't happen in the show. (But that doesn't mean it couldn't have happened if they had continued making the series!)

Yes, the last reference was from Olaf in _Frozen._ Did anyone catch the first reference?

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	7. Chapter 7: Waiting

_**Chapter Seven: Waiting**_

 _Tuesday, June 5th, 2018_

"What happened to the rug?" Tucker asked, eyes widening when he noticed the nice round circle of ash where the rug used to be.

"Abbi did that. I think it was some sort of ghost ray," Sam murmured, sinking into a chair beside the table. The breakfast she'd made for Abbi and herself laid forgotten on the table, having grown cold a long time ago.

Phantom stood beside his wife, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We will get her back, I promise." Sam merely placed her own hand over his. When she didn't respond Phantom turned to the genie ghost hovering awkwardly in the door way. "Desiree, I want to know what Abbi's wish was, exactly word for word."

"Her desire? She spoke her wish as such: _I wish I could go back in time, to meet my dad, so he can help me with my powers._ I simply did as she asked," Desiree replied. "You know once I hear a wish I must grant it."

"You normally grant it in an undesirable way," Phantom replied dryly.

"Most simply leave their wishes very open ended. The child, Abbi, did a pretty good job with her wish," Desiree seemed rather impressed as she said this, almost happy to have been able to grant a well worded wish.

"So, if I were to word my wish correctly, could I retrieve my daughter without damaging time?"

"Unfortunately, no. I've stated that you already exist in the time she has gone back to so if you did go back, no matter how the wish was worded, there would be no way to prevent you and your past self from joining." When Desiree received an angry look she added, "My King," and bowed for good measure.

"So when will she appear in history. I've had my powers since I was fourteen. Surely you didn't send her back to a time where even I didn't have control over my powers, did you?"

"I do not know when she will appear in history," the genie replied, and again received an angry look. "An-Any part of the wish could determine the time she lands in history. ' _I wish I could go back in time_ ' could mean any point before she existed. Adding to that ' _to meet my dad_ ' could be any time after you and Sam are born, ensuring that her existence will happen. Adding again ' _so he can help me with my powers_ ' will mean you will have to have your powers as well. I do believe it would be at a point where you had relative control over them as you wouldn't be able to help her with her own power if you didn't have control over your own. Beyond that I cannot say."

"So, it could be any time after my fight with the Lunch Lady… that was the first time I felt I had control over them, even if it was new and I only had a few powers then. Or any time up to Sam becoming pregnant, is that correct?"

"I would agree, my King, yes."

"That's a big window…"

"So, she must have gone back about twenty years," Tucker joined in, adding his two cents worth. This brought Sam out of her thoughts.

"Twenty years? That's a rather specific guess."

"It's a nice round number, and a nice time to land in the past too. Danny's powers were still rather new to him, giving him a good understanding of Abbi's lack of control. If you ask me, that is," Tucker replied, shrugging as he pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down himself, eyeing the vegetarian meal in front of him with distaste.

"Any time isn't a good time Tuck. She could say something about being our child and cause herself to never be born, she could try and get us together before we are ready, causing herself to never be born, she could reveal to my parents who I am or who she is and end up with us on a laboratory table getting dissected, causing herself to never be born. She could-"

"Okay, okay I get it, she could cause herself to never be born. But think about it guys, Abbi is a smart girl. How many movies about time travel and science fiction has she seen? Anyone would know, even if it was only a fictional truth, that messing with the time stream could lead to disaster. Abbi would know this too. She's a smart girl, she won't mess up like you're saying and cause you two to not end up together," Tucker reasoned. "Sam, you said that Abbi was mad about seeing you kiss Danny, right? Abbi has always been fiercely protective of her father, even having never truly known the man-"

"Tucker that's-"

"I know that's not your fault, dude, and I'm not saying it is. You have no control over this stuff Danny, that's not what I'm getting at. What I'm saying is, Abbi is fiercely protective of you, when she meets you as a teen she will want to _protect_ you – well… protect might be the wrong word… - She was upset at the idea that her mother kissed someone that wasn't her father, right? She will want to make sure you two are together and that you aren't interested in anyone else. Depending on how old you are when she arrives that might not be a problem." Tucker looked between his two best friends, trying to get them to understand. "Sure, seeing you crushing on Paulina or Val, or Sam crushing on that Gregor/Elliot kid, that might make her try and interfere, but I don't think anything she does will stop you two getting together. You two were going to happen with or without anyone's help or interference. So, don't worry about that part. What she seems to be going back in time to do is simply meet you. Get to know you, dude. What's so bad about her wanting to know her dad? Even if it's only as a teenager himself?"

The room was silent for a long time. Sam watching Phantom and Phantom focused on the floor. He would never admit it but he was holding back tears. He understood what Tucker was saying. Abbi didn't know him, and he didn't know Abbi much at all either. Sure, Sam told him everything about her and how she was doing, what she was doing, what she liked and didn't like. But that wasn't truly _knowing_ her like a father should. Again, he found himself wanting to have tried harder to be in her life, to find a way around the barriers his ghost half caused and be the father he had planned on being when Sam first told him she was pregnant.

He felt Sam squeeze his hand, but he couldn't meet her eye.

"Let's give her some time, if she really went back to meet you… and learn to control her powers, that's not going to happen very fast," Tucker finished saying after sitting in silence for what felt like eternity waiting for a reply that would never come.

"Only time will tell, guys."

 ** _Posted 8/25/18_**

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	8. Chapter 8: Fight and Flight

_**Chapter Eight: Fight and Flight**_

 _Friday, June 6th, 1998_

It was a sunny Friday morning that found the group of five teenagers wandering around Amity Park in search of Lilly's family's home. Jazz and Lilly had hit it off well it seemed. The two walked together at the front of the group. Jazz asking different questions about where Lilly and her family had stopped at or what road they might have come into town from. Listening to the girls conversations it seemed like Lilly did know a little about the town, but some of her answers weren't accurate. Thinking there was a gas station where there was nothing or some things like that. Odd things that just didn't add up.

"Do you really think she has any family here?" Sam asked, whispering so the girls didn't hear.

"What do you mean?" Tucker asked.

"Well she did fall out of the sky before going 'non-responsive' on us yesterday. Who's to say her story isn't made up?" Sam reasoned, eyeing the girl. "And the whole 'experimenting' line, who's to say that's true? What proof do we have other than her word?"

Danny and Tucker gazed at each other, Tucker a bit more skeptically.

"She does have a point, Tuck," Danny said, seeing where Sam was coming from.

"Then what's with the ghost powers, we all saw what she did to yo- to Phantom when she saw him yesterday. That wasn't fabricated," Tucker said.

"So, because she has a few powers then her story must be true?" Sam said, scathingly. "Remember the ghost bug bites? I was floating around on the ceiling! Who's to say this isn't something similar?"

"Don't remind me!" Tucker cringed, avoiding all memories that involve hospitals. "It was bad enough being in a hospital yesterday!"

Danny and Sam just shared an eyeroll.

"Anyway, if it wasn't the GIW what do you think happened? She seems genuine about not knowing a thing about ghosts. She was way to attentive when Jazz was explaining about ectoplasm. I don't know of anyone who's ever listened so much to ghost science without dozing off," Danny said, the three of them falling behind the previous two, allowing them to speak more freely.

"What about that cousin of yours that had ghost powers? Dani?" Sam asked. "You never did say where she came from or where she went. Could that be a relative?"

"I don't know, Dani was a special case, and I did tell you, she went back home… her family isn't in Amity Park and she's….an only child…" Danny said, scrambling for anything that might get his clone out of the topic. He would have to ask Lilly alone if she knew Vlad or Plasmius but he already guessed the answer would be no.

"You did? I don't reme-"

"Hey, guys! Why are you falling behind!?"

The group looked up to see the two girls already at the end of the block. Jazz having been the one to holler at them.

"We were thinking of going to the Nasty Burger for lunch. You all up for that?" Jazz asked.

"Yeah, sounds great," Danny yelled, starting to jog ahead to catch up. _They can't ask about Dani if Jazz and Lilly are around._

They weren't that far from the burger joint, Lilly giving them an odd look about the name 'Nasty Burger.'

"Couldn't they have come up with a better name?" she asked.

"It's just one more charm of living in Amity Park. Some places have mice or mosquitoes, we have Ghost attacks and the Nasty Burger," Danny said. His companions gave him an odd look. "What?"

"Ignore my brother, he's been hit one too many times on the head…" Jazz said, steering Lilly down the sidewalk.

"What?" Danny asked again when Sam and Tucker followed them. "Oh, come on, it was funny!"

"Only to you Danny," Sam called back.

"Well I _did_ think it was funny," Danny grumbled, following the group, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

 _ **DP DP DP**_

Abbi looked around the restaurant as they chose a booth. Going back in time some twenty years sure didn't change much here. About the only thing she could tell was that maybe the place would get a new coat of paint in a few years. It had the same menu choices, even the same menu signs. Not even the booths would be replaced.

Abbi watched as Jazz teased Danny and Sam laughed, Tucker smirked while typing away on his PDA. Some other teens were hanging around the restaurant as well, most ignored their little group. A few nerd looking teens waved at them. While the jocks had laughed at them, particularly when Sam ordered her tofu burger. The main jock, Dash, made a comment about the two being 'lovebirds' which sent both her teenaged parents into an uproar which Dash ignored, laughing along with his group as they headed out the door.

After the jocks and cheerleaders left though, the atmosphere calmed down and that led to Jazz teasing Danny and Abbi experiencing a day in the life of a 1990's teen. Old music, old technology, old fashion, old just about everything. Hopefully she didn't go and mention anything that was too new, like electric cars or cellphone watches, that would be fun to explain.

"What do you do for fun around here?" Abbi asked, wondering if even that was different.

"There's a good mini golf course nearby," Tucker mentioned. "You know, when it's not under repair from ghost attacks."

"The movie theater should open back up next week once the repairs are done," Sam reminded them.

"The water park is still open last I checked," Jazz commented.

"No, that got damaged two days ago," Danny said, rubbing his side as he made the comment.

"Oh, I didn't know that," Jazz replied, concerned. "Which ghost attacked there?"

"Skulker and Ember," Danny grumbled.

"Tough fight?" Jazz asked.

"From what I hear it was, but it's nothing to worry about, Phantom took care of them," Danny answered. Abbi was about to ask about this when their food arrived at the table and they spent a few moments organizing the food and digging in.

Tucker waved goodbye to the nerds as they headed out together.

"Where are they going?" Sam asked.

"Robotics club started last week," Tucker said.

"Didn't you join?" Jazz asked.

"Nah, I've got too much to do, I wouldn't have the time to focus on the club," he replied, shrugging.

"That's too bad."

"No biggie, besides, there isn't much I can learn there anymore," Tucker said, picking back up his PDA. "All I need is this baby with me and I'm fine."

Abbi must have given Tucker an odd look because Sam, Danny and Jazz all burst out laughing at the two.

"Don't worry Lilly, this is completely normal for Tucker, you get used to it pretty soon," Danny explained, smiling at Abbi. She gave him a half smile before looking back at her plate. Tucker wasn't nearly as odd in the future, she'd never seen him act like that over his Apple watch or latest tablet.

And then there was Danny. The happy go lucky kid she'd never known or even had the chance to know. He smiled a lot here, getting teased by his sister, hanging out with his friends, cracking jokes, even if they were lame. She found herself falling into thought, wondering what had changed and made him leave. What kept him away from these three people he clearly loved being with.

And where did this 'phantom' come in anyway. She'd only seen him once since she came to this year and she didn't know where he went after that. Having been sucking into the odd thermos device right after… From what Jazz said, the guy was a bit of a celebrity in Amity Park, some liked him, and some didn't, but it was clear to Abbi that Jazz had a very positive opinion of the ghost, she even seemed a bit proud of him.

"Where should we head next? We've checked most of the neighborhoods on this end of town but there are still quite a few around to go through," Jazz pipped up. Drawing Abbi back into the conversation.

"Should we split up? Cover more ground?" Tucker asked.

"Nah, we wouldn't know what to look for without Lilly being there with us," Jazz said. "Besides, best to stay as a group should any ghosts attack."

"Jazz! You just jinxed us!" Danny groaned loudly, slouching down in the booth till the only thing you could see was a stock of black hair.

"What?"

"Whenever someone suggests a ghost attack happening, one always happens," Sam explained, casually taking a bite from her burger.

"That's not true," Jazz replied. She opened her mouth to respond, probably with a scientific theory study on how this and that effected some other thing that made them assume she had 'jinxed' them, only for Danny to cut her off.

"No matter what you say Jazz, it won't change the fact that a ghost is going to attack now that you mentioned it."

"Fine, when?" Jazz rebutted.

"Soon, too soon," came her brother's response.

The table fell silent, as if waiting in the quiet would make the attack happen quicker but after a minute Tucker went back to eating his burger, Sam took a sip of her drink and Danny sat back up in his seat. When Jazz opened her mouth, Danny sent her a stern look and she shut it again with a 'huff.' Abbi couldn't help but giggle at them all, enjoying the banter between the siblings and friends.

"Should we head out then?" Sam proposed, having finished her meal along with the rest of the table.

Agreeing, the party of five gathered their trays and deposited them in the bins and receptacles before heading out into the sunlight once more to continue this (fruitless) endeavor to locate Abbi's 'missing' family.

However, this time Danny made a point of walking with Abbi and Jazz, joining in their conversations about life in Amity Park and any other item that came to mind. It was almost an hour later when they were walking past Casper High when their luck finally ran out.

Loud crashes followed be high-pitched screams filled the air as the front doors to the school burst opens. Students and teachers stilled out of the building, their arms over their heads protecting themselves from the flying machinery parts that glowed green and appeared to be trying to bite them.

"See Jazz, I told you it would happen," Danny grumbled from beside Abbi.

Abbi couldn't take her eyes off the crazy glowing parts that followed the people around. Some of the people ran past their group and the offending robotic device changed tactic and went after their group of five. Deep down Abbi felt a cold in her stomach that started crawling up her spine as the contraption drew closer. As the cold entered her mouth a glowing humanoid ghost floated out of the school roof laughing – well Abbi thought he was laughing – evilly at the chaos occurring on the ground before him. Abbi vaguely heard Tucker groan and felt Jazz tug on her arm, pulling her away from the school. That's when the ghost started speaking and Abbi felt the puff of cold air leave her lungs at last.

"Mwahahahahaha! I, Technus 2.0, Master of Technology, have taken control of your robots and freed them from your human command! They now serve me and do my bidding, soon every piece of technology will be under my control! Watch as your precious electronics betray you!" The green skinned, gray cloak wearing ghost shouted, his hands glowing green as he channeled his ectoplasm into the machines and transferred his power to the robotics' clubs' projects below. Each and every robot began to glow a brighter green then before and soon small hand like appendages reached out from each one and towards the people fleeing.

Abbi and Jazz paused midflight as the glowing hands grabbed any electronic device the students had, be it cell phones, watches, PDA's or laptops. You name it, it floated out of their grasp, glowing green and started attacking the students that had held them. Technus returned to laughing as more screams filled the air.

"Lilly, we need to get away from here!" Jazz said, tugging again at Abbi's arm.

"R-right," Abbi replied distractedly. Her brain was trying to – in the spirit of the current ghost attack – reboot itself from the shock this attack had put her in.

This was really happening.

A ghost was attacking the school and succeeding in taking control of every computer around.

Yes, people were running away screaming, but… not in the fear Abbi imagined her own 2018 schoolmates would show.

Some people were laying beneath the picnic tables batting the robotics away with bookbags, others were just throwing their cell phones at the ghost before continuing their flight. Scared, yes, but straight out terror… no.

 _This happens so often that they aren't really scared anymore?_ Abbi wondered at last, realizing what she truly was seeing.

"Hey! Tech-no-butt! Can't you leave the school alone for two days!"

The shout came from above their heads and Abbi's own eyes shot up, locking on the form of 'Phantom' as he floated in the air some seventy feet off the ground.

"Ah, Ghost Child, I was expecting you," the self-proclaimed 'Technus' shouted. "And now that you are here, I! Technus 2.0! Will finally defeat you and take over this human realm! I, Technus 2.0 will destroy this world and build it anew with the wonderful technology I have acquired here today!"

"Look, let's just fast-forward to the part where I defeat you, you go in the thermos and we get on with our day pretending you never showed up," Phantom shouted, his fists glowing a bright green before he shot blast after blast at the cloaked ghost.

Jazz finally succeeded in dragging Abbi far enough away from the battle and the two sheltered in an alleyway nearby, watching from a distance as Phantom and the ghost of technology battled it out.

Abbi could only watch as Technus attacked the Phantom ghost with different robots, some with sharp points, some that seems to produce electricity; Phantom blocked each hit with practiced ease, shouting out how lame Technus was in his new '2.0' upgrade, asking if the upgrade came from the stone age.

She didn't know what to think of this scene. When she first caught sight of Phantom she was angry but as Jazz yanked her away, distracting her from her anger, she started watching Phantom. Listening to the teenage like ghost banter with the technology themed ghost. He was enjoying himself as he fought the ghost. Jazz had told her about this, about how Phantom worked but seeing it was something else… and it confused her to her core.

An angered Technus glared at Phantom before a smirk appeared on his face. "Perhaps I can not hurt you with this technology, but there are others I can injure!"

Suddenly each and every robot turned its attention back to the humans on the ground. Abbi figured out the ghost's plan the same moment that Phantom did. Gasping, Phantom flew towards the closest group of students and instantly had them covered under a dome of ectoplasm. The robot going after them met Phantom's fist and disintegrated on contact. Phantom didn't spare a second before moving on to the next group of student's and destroying the robot attacking them. Then suddenly there were _two_ Phantoms, each flying around, shooting at the robots and protecting different people still cowering on the ground.

"There are two of him!?" Abbi shouted, utterly confused.

"No- well, yes but no," Jazz answered from behind her. "Phantom can duplicate himself, create a clone to help him fight but he can't maintain them for too long… it seems."

The last part she added almost as an afterthought.

"How do you know?"

"Wh-what? Oh well… when you live in Amity, you pick up a thing or two about ghosts… and my parents are the leading ghost scientists in the world after all," Jazz replied hastily.

"Right…," Abbi wasn't quite sure she believed all that Jazz said, Jazz didn't seem to believe it, but at the moment Abbi couldn't call her out on it either. The battle drew their attention back as suddenly all the robot parts began flying toward Technus 2.0 himself.

In a last-ditch effort Technus was calling all the technology he'd accumulated in the schoolyard to him and the ghost soon vanished beneath it as a grotesque robot body formed around him, complete with a face of glowing green pixels.

"Now you shall be defeated, Ghost Child!" the giant robot shouted, as it pulled back its fist.

Abbi could hear Phantom shouting insults as he dodged each hit Technus throw, sometimes slipping away at the last possible second just to show the ghost that he could. He continued to taunt the ghost, make fun of his vocabulary, insult his technology. Each jab designed to get the ghost increasingly angrier and more upset then the last. Then suddenly – after a particular bad line that produced a groan from all the humans watching from the ground below – Technus 2.0 froze in the air. His arms unmoving, legs stuck. Abbi could hear him crying out in confusion as to what was happening. Behind Abbi, Jazz gave out a shout of 'yes!'.

In the split-second Abbi turned to look at Jazz then look back at the fight, Phantom had pulled out a thermos and was sucking the ghost up into it as robot parts fell from the sky, crashing to the ground and breaking into little tiny pieces. And just like that, the ghost was gone, and Phantom was flying off into the sky, vanishing from view.

 _ **DP DP DP**_

"I got it Phantom!" Danny heard Tucker shout from the ground right as Technus froze mid-punch.

"Wh-What is going on! Why can't I move?!" Technus shouted. "Explain! Ghost Child!"

"Wish I could, Techy buddy, but you've just earned a one-way trip to the Ghost Zone, courtesy of Air Phantom," Danny replied, pulling out his trusty thermos and twisting the cap off. "Any last words?"

"This won't be the last you see of meeeeeeee-" Technus shouted as his ghostly body was sucked into the thermos one more time.

"I didn't assume it was," Danny said, capping the thermos. He watched as the robotics' clubs' robots along with every laptop and cellphone that Technus had taken control over crashed to the ground, shattering into irreparable pieces. Wincing he turned towards the sky, not bothering to locate where Jazz had drug Lilly too and flew off.

He pulled on his invisibility before sinking to the ground some three blocks away to transform in a closed off alleyway. It wasn't until he checked that the coast was clear before he reappeared in the visible field and started running towards the school. He arrived as the students and teachers were beginning to pick up the pieces of their precious projects.

He caught sight of Jazz and Abbi helping out. Tucker and Sam were on the other end of the schoolyard from them, so Danny hurried over to them and began picking up different pieces of metal. "How did it go guys?" Danny asked, knowing the two would understand.

"Clean as a whistle, didn't even notice, she was too focused on Technus," Sam replied, picking up what used to be a laptop. "It's a good thing Vlad added the ghost insurance policy on all the school related supplies…, at least that way Phantom won't get the grief for having destroyed the computer room again…"

Danny groaned.

"Thanks, Sam…, Thanks…"

 ** _Posted 9/7/18_**

Hi everyone! Sorry I'm two days late, I had half this chapter written last week but didn't want to post it incomplete, so I held off until I had a chance to write more. So now 9/7/18 you get this longer chapter compared to the previous two short chapters.

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	9. Chapter 9: Temporary Goodbye

_**Chapter Nine: Temporary Goodbye**_

 _Wednesday, June 6th, 2018_

"I have to go back now," Danny murmured to Sam. They had been sitting in the kitchen for over an hour trying to think of a way to get Abbi back. It was a hard blow when Tucker suggested waiting for Abbi to return on her own. Danny still wasn't sure that was even possible. How did they really know when Abbi arrived in the past? How would she figure out how to get home?

"I know, I just would like it if you could stay longer," Sam said, her arms around Danny's waist while he held her in his arms.

"I would too, more then you know," Danny kissed the top of Sam's head before pulling away for a final time. The green swirling portal stood behind them. Desiree had already gone through on Phantom's orders. Tucker was waiting outside the room after saying his own goodbye to Danny already. Sam stepped back from her husband as he rose effortlessly into the air. "I'll be back the second I can, send word if she shows up."

"I will," Sam answered. "I love you," Sam murmured before a small but happy grin appeared on her face. "King Phantom," she said, bowing to her husband.

Phantom rolled his eyes at the bow but smiled either way, "As I love you, Queen Phantom." He did a sweeping bow in return. When he rose again he meet Sam's eyes. "I won't be long."

"I know."

"See you soon."

"Yeah, you too."

Phantom gazed longingly at Sam for a moment longer before he turned towards the portal and vanished from sight. Sighing, Sam turned from the supernatural green glow and walked to the door. Shutting off the light she placed her hand on the key pad beside the door, ensuring the lock would engage once the door was shut before slipping out of her husband's 'office'.

"Is locking it really necessary with Abbi not here?" Tucker asked, taking note of Sam's actions.

"I guess not, it's just habit," Sam replied, closing the door behind her, a metallic click sounded, indicating the door was sealed from the inside.

"He was looking okay when he left, he won't be long," Tucker said, trying to lift his friend's spirits, pun not intended.

"Then he has you fooled," Sam replied, a small smirk on her lips.

"What?"

"He was hiding his fatigue well, but it was still showing through the cracks. He was just putting on a front to try and save face. It's a habit he's picked up from his time as King of the Ghost Zone," Sam explained. "He might not even realize he's doing it, but when ever someone other then me is around when he visits, he hides every sign a fatigue he can, and he can hide a lot when he needs too."

"Serious? But I'm his best friend! He can show me!" Tucker grumbled.

"Maybe but with Desiree here he couldn't and he just didn't stop after she left," Sam tried to explain. "Like I said-"

"It's habit, yeah, you mentioned that," Tucker sighed. "So, how was he really? Seeing's how I apparently couldn't tell."

"Wiped out. He's been worse before, but this was a short trip to be that tired over. His worry for Abbi was draining more energy then I think even he realized," Sam explained.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Tucker nodded. "It's not every day you lose your child twenty years back in history…"

"Why are you so stuck on twenty years?"

"N-no reason!"

 _ **DP DP DP**_

As Phantom slipped through the glowing green of the ghost portal, he felt his energy instantly increase. He's breathing became calmer and slower; while it didn't beat, his heart felt lighter and the pressing atmosphere of the physical plain lifted from his shoulders. He took a few seconds to take in the power from his realm before sealing the portal. A ghost proof door slid down over top of the portal preventing any ghosts from entering into Phantom's human house. This didn't prevent all ghosts from entering the physical plain but it protected his wife and daughter from any malevolent ghosts that might try and use them as leverage over him. Not many ghosts had that kind of power anymore, but it was always better to be safe then sorry.

With the portal sealed shut, Phantom turned to the green and purple sky of the Ghost Zone and saw his small security guard waiting. Currently they floated with their backs to the portal, preventing any ghosts from leaving while it was open. This also gave Phantom some time to recover some strength before facing his subjects. Being King meant never showing weakness. Ever.

"Fright Knight," Phantom called, the purple and black ghost turned to face him at Phantom's call.

"Yes, Lord Phantom?" he called, kneeling before Phantom.

"Has anything happened while I was away?" Phantom asked.

"No, my King, only the Ghost of Wishes came through a moment ago, she said she would wait for you at your castle as you ordered," the purple flaming ghost reported.

"Good," Phantom nodded, "I need to return right away, the trip to the Far Frozen will have to wait for now."

"Has something happened, my King? No ghost but you have ever used this portal before today," Fright Knight asked.

"Yes, I need to visit the library. Rather, send someone to retrieve Ghost Writer, I need a word with him," Phantom said, half thinking aloud. "And leave a guard over the portal until further notice. Two solders should be sufficient."

"Yes, my King, my I ask why, or what they should keep a lookout for?" the Fright Knight questioned.

"Anything out of the ordinary, ghost or otherwise," Phantom replied. "I doubt they will have anything to report but precautions must be taken."

"Yes, Lord Phantom, I will see it done."

"Very well," Phantom nodded, then without another word he headed toward his castle, his lair in the Ghost Zone.

It was a large island floating a little more than fifteen-minutes from the portal to his human home. The old castle was quite new compared to the other buildings in the zone, having begun its development over the time when Phantom was more often called Danny. But after having to become King and make the Ghost Zone his permanent; home the castle seemed to complete itself overnight. It went from a semi developed single story stone structure to a towering five story castle with towers and an inner court yard. A surrounding stone wall with battlements and gateway entrance.

The structure used to remind Danny of old sand castles he and Jazz would build when they took trips to the beach but after a while Phantom simply called it home. The closest island lair was Dora's kingdom found another ten minutes to the east. The two castles used to be closer neighbors but seeing as how everything in the Zone floated, they were bound to drift over time.

Behind Phantom he could hear the Fright Knight giving orders to the solders about guarding the portal and sending for Ghost Writer, but Phantom didn't pay attention to his words. Phantom personal guard of four followed behind Phantom as he made his way to his lair. Passing empty islands and long deserted lairs of ghost that had faded from memory. Danny used to find the empty doors a sad sight but after more than a decade in the Zone he was glad for the silence and solitude the empty islands provided. More than once he'd find himself hunting down a deserted island to rest on and take a break from being King, Lord, Your Majesty, and whatever else the ghosts of the Zone decided to call him. He almost preferred Dipstick and Whelp to the Royal Titles.

Whenever Ember and Skulker turned up the Fright Knight would have a field day about the nerve of the two ghosts calling the King such disrespectful names but Phantom never stopped the two. He liked to think it kept him more down to earth, even if he no longer was on the earth. It was also fun to see the Fright Knight get so worked up. Phantom started to think the two would stop by, not to bug Phantom but to annoy the flaming purple ghost, also something Phantom never attempted to stop.

The castle came into sight and Phantom sped up, forcing the guards to increase their pace but Phantom was faster then them and he ditched the ghosts before entering the main wing of the castle. Ghosts bustled around doing different jobs, half of which Phantom still didn't know what they did. He was quite thankful Fright Knight had to devote himself to the Zone's new king immediately after Danny became the king because Phantom was sure that Danny would never have gotten through those first few years. Or rather, they would have been much harder to survive. He didn't exactly attend royalty classes in college after all. And nothing from high school taught him how to rule an entire realm all on his own. Between Princess Dora, Frostbite, Clockwork and the Fright Knight, Danny had made the evolution from Fenton to Phantom relatively unharmed and with fewer fights then he anticipated when Clockwork first came to him that fateful day fourteen years ago.

 ** _Posted 9/15/18_**

So this might have felt like a 'filler' chapter and that's because it kinda sorta is, but it gives a little background. Sorry if I confused anyone with switching between calling Danny 'Danny' or 'Phantom'. It will be explained more later on.

Feel free to leave a review, they keep me smiling!

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	10. Chapter 10: One Fateful Day (Part 1)

_**Chapter Ten: One Fateful Day (Part 1)**_

 _Friday, November 1st, 2003 (Flashback)_

Danny headed down the stairs early one morning to find Sam already in the kitchen with a meal halfway done. Outside it was blistery cold but snow wouldn't arrive for another few weeks and for that Danny was grateful. While having an ice core like he did, it still wasn't pleasant to drive in the snow and ice. No part of his powers gave a car better traction on black ice.

"You're finally up, good, I was getting bored," Sam grumbled, stirring the eggs on the skillet.

"Sorry, I didn't wake up when you got out of bed," Danny apologized, walking up behind his wife and hugging her from behind.

"You can't sleep through a ghost sense, but you can sleep right through me grumbling about _this_ little monster?" Sam replied.

"Apparently," Danny laughed, kissing her cheek. Quick as a flash, Danny whipped his hand out and grabbed a small piece of egg from the skillet before Sam could stop him.

"Danny! That's not finished yet! At least wait till it's off the stove!" Sam cried, batting his hand away as he went in for seconds.

"Why do you care? It's not like you'll eat any of them?" Danny teased, but relented, walking over to the refrigerator and pulling out some soy milk from inside.

"It's common curtesy," Sam snipped. With a few more stirs of the spatula, she pulled the skillet from the stove and moved towards the plates sitting beside the stove. She deposited all the egg onto one of the two plates. "Besides, you might burn yourself," she retorted, knowing full well that was practically impossible for Danny.

"If I could burn myself on cooking eggs, then they'd be more burned then cooked," Danny laughed, turning from the fridge to see his wife setting the plates onto their small eat in kitchen table.

Her dark hair flowed down her back, longer then it had been in high school. Today it was pulled back with a simple hair clip, so it didn't fall in her face. The fabric of her dark purple shirt was gathered just below her chest by a metal ring causing it to cling tight to her chest before fanning out around her waist. A black cardigan covered her arms and hung lose at her sides as well. The slim fit jeans she wore ended with dark combat boots that Danny was sure would never leave his wife's wardrobe.

But her wardrobe wasn't the reason Danny stood there, admiring his wife. No. It was the small bump of her stomach that her flowing shirt could only hope to hide. Four months pregnant, and Sam was showing so much that their families had suspected there to be twins. But their OBGYN was adamant that there was only one heartbeat. An announcement that Danny and Sam were more than happy to hear.

"What?" Sam's question broke Danny from his thoughts. "If you tell me I look fat, I swear I'll-"

"I would never say that!" Danny laughed, "What made you think I was even thinking such a thing? Can't a man simply admire how his wife looks in the morning?"

The narrowing of Sam's eyes clearly said 'no'.

"So… did you sleep well?" Danny rushed, hoping to steer the subject into more pleasant waters.

"No, I did not," Sam grumbled. "This little spawn of yours makes it impossible to get comfortable no matter how many times I turn over or adjust my pillows."

Danny sweat dropped at that comment… "Oh… r-right…" Danny frantically tried to think of something to say to calm her down. "Well… the doctor did say that should be tempora… never mind…" The glare he received after _that_ comment shut him up fast.

"So… anything interesting at work planned for today?" he tried, hoping to salvage the breakfast table conversation.

"No, just finishing up the paperwork for next week's rally about – " and Sam was off talking about one rally or another about one topic or another that Danny didn't even try to follow. The ultra-recyclo-vegetarian was very adamant about her job. She organized rallies for everything from the importance of recycling to the freedom of animals from testing labs and beyond. While she hadn't yet converted Danny into an ultra-vegetarian, he did admit that he ate less meat since their wedding. Mostly because Sam refused to cook meat and he wasn't that great in the kitchen. Those were some of the lessons from his parents that he had been able to avoid.

Danny was still in college himself. Working towards his goal of being an astronaut. If Phantom did end up preventing that, he at least wanted to work with NASA and that took college and good grades. He had a part time job as plumber that he was also learning the ropes in. If the NASA gig didn't work out, he needed to provide for his family and he wasn't one to like to rely on Sam's family's fortune for a living. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the plumbing, it was just very boring compared to his college work and the ghost hunting job he'd had in high school. Not that ghost hunting had ever brought in any money…

 _ **DP DP DP**_

An hour later Danny and Sam were gathering their things up to leave for the day. Danny didn't have college today, so it was off to work while Sam gathered her computer and any paperwork, she had brought home the night before. Danny was picking up his winter coat when his ghost sense went off causing him to shiver involuntarily.

"Something wrong Danny?" Sam asked, having missed the gasp of blue air.

"My ghost sense…" Danny murmured.

"What? But ghosts never come around anymore."

Sam wasn't wrong either. It had been years since Amity Park had been plagued with ghosts. It wasn't an instant thing or anything like that. But over the years the ghosts had just stopped traveling to the living world. It was a combination of things, really. It was Skulker finally accepting he'd never capture Danny Phantom, it was the Box Ghost getting stuffed into the Thermus one too many times to find the living world worth the effort, it was Spectra getting stuck in the Ghost Zone prison and not being released for another five hundred years. Amity Park slowly became ghost free. Danny hadn't had a ghost show up in six months and he hadn't been to the Zone in nearly nine, not since Sam and his wedding in the spring.

And Danny Phantom hadn't been seen in Amity Park for just as long. Danny still enjoyed a good night's flight from time to time but if he ever had the itching to go for a flight, he would make sure to drive outside the city first. One, to avoid his parents picking up his ecto-signature; and two, he could see the stars better from the countryside.

So for his ghost sense to go off was truly a rare thing anymore. At first, he thought it might be Dani coming to visit but that thought was quickly erased as a large clock hand appeared in their living room and spun around, opening to show the swirling green portal that Clockwork was best known for.

The elderly ghost floated in carrying his Staff of Time before the portal closed behind him.

"Daniel, Sam, it is good to see you again," the Ghost of Time greeted them, bowing slightly to his young charge.

"Clockwork, hello… Yeah, good to see you too…?" Danny murmured, the coat in his hand falling back onto the hook he had just picked it up from. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not wrong, but you both will want to call in sick to work today, we have a lot to talk about."

 ** _Posted 9/25/18_**

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	11. Chapter 11: One Fateful Day (Part 2)

_**Chapter Eleven: One Fateful Day (Part 2)**_

 _Friday, November 1st, 2003 (Flashback)_

"Call in sick? Why? What for?" Sam asked, not sure what to make of this new development.

"There are upcoming events I need to inform you both about and it will take most of the morning. It would be best if you tell your bosses you won't be in today," Clockwork explained, his body shifting to a young man.

"This couldn't wait till later?" Danny asked, getting worried about what events would cause his guardian to come see him and his wife together.

"Please Daniel, call your boss and I will explain everything."

"Alright," Danny murmured, not sure he would like what he was about to learn. "This… this isn't about… you know, him?"

"No, Dan is not involved in what I need to discuss with you both."

Danny and Sam shared a glance. Clockwork coming to see Danny was one thing, but specifically needing to see Sam as well was new even for the Ghost of Time. Danny nodded to his guardian before pulling out his phone and dialing a number he rarely had to dial. Beside him Sam was digging around in her jacket for her own cell phone.

"What do you mean you can't come in today?" Danny's boss growled from the other end of the phone. His boss wasn't the nicest of people, his teacher he didn't mind calling but the boss man was a different story.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but some family business has come up I wasn't anticipating. I wish I could make it in today, but it just doesn't look too likely that it will happen," Danny tried explaining.

"What type of family business?" his boss asked warily. Just because there weren't ghost anymore didn't mean people forgot what the name 'Fenton' meant.

"Nothing like that Sir, at least… I hope not…" Danny replied, having never discussed ghosts with his boss this was heading into uncharted waters.

"Very well, but I expect these hours to be made up for later this week," his boss growled out one last time before hanging up with no warning.

"Nice talking with you too, Sir," Danny said to the dead line.

He could hear Sam talking in the kitchen with one of her co-workers, giving some instructions for the day on what needed to be done and what she would have to put off till tomorrow. Clockwork simply hoovered in the living room, quietly waiting for the woman to finish he phone call and return to them.

"Clockwork, what is all this about anyway?" Danny asked.

"Sam is almost done, Daniel, it would be best to tell you both at once," Clockwork explained. And true to his word, Danny heard Sam giving her farewell to her co-worker. Soon she had returned to the living room with two glasses of water, knowing full well Clockwork would turn down any offer of refreshments from previous engagements.

Sam handed Danny his glass as she joined him on the couch. Clockwork hoovered over a chair, appearing to sit down, his staff floating beside him.

"Okay Clockwork, you have our attention, what's this all about?"

"Of course, as you very well know Daniel, when you were fourteen, Plasmius released a ghost known as Pariah Dark from the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep. Upon his awakening Pariah Dark attempted to invade and take over this human plain and bring into the Ghost Zone. His plans to reign over the human and ghost realms would have succeeded no doubt had it not been for Danny Phantom," Clockwork began.

Danny and Sam glanced at each other, confused on why he would bring something up form six years ago, "He hasn't been released, has he?" Sam asked.

"No, Pariah is still safely sealed away in the Sarcophagus. But soon that won't matter," the ghost of time replied.

"What's that mean, why wouldn't it matter, is he going to escape?" Danny asked, worry breaking free again.

"No, he will not be released but even if he was to be released, he will soon lose his power," Clockwork explained.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked. "Why would that happen? Hasn't he been around for a millennium?"

"Yes, he has, if you will let me, I will explain," he said, pausing to give the couple a chance to interrupt once more. When they stayed quiet, he continued. "As you know, Pariah Dark is the King of the Ghost Zone, King of the Dead. Even while locked away he is still the ruler of the Realm of the Dead. But soon that won't matter anymore. Soon a new ruler will come to power."

"A new ruler?" Danny asked, puzzled. "Like what, he has a kid or something?"

"No, he is not passing on the throne, Daniel. He has, instead, been overthrown," Clockwork explained.

"What? How? By who?" Danny asked. Beside him Sam gasped, her hands flying to her mouth in shock. "What?" Danny asked again, feeling he was missing something obvious.

"When Pariah Dark tried to take over six years ago, Daniel, a ghost who was not yet of age defeated him. This ghost trapped him back inside the Sarcophagus without his Crown of Fire," Clockwork explained, effectively confusing Danny who had thought (as Clockwork had already said) that it had been him who defeated Pariah Dark. "It is this ghost, Daniel, who is now coming of age who will soon be crowned the new King of the Ghost Zone."

"Danny…" Sam breathed his name beside him. Danny glanced at her then back to the real ghost in the room.

"Clockwork… what are you saying…" Danny asked. Some part of him, deep down knew what Clockwork was about to say but it wouldn't be real unless he said it flat out. Clockwork 'stood' up from the chair he had been occupying and floated before Danny.

"Daniel Fenton, you, Danny Phantom will he crowned the new King of the Ghost Zone on your twenty first birthday," Clockwork said, bowing low to Danny for the first time.

The room fell silent as Danny and Sam the ghost's words. Clockwork floated there, having risen from his bow, gazing at the two of them with his glowing red eyes. It took a few minutes for either of the two humans to get their vices back.

"But, Clockwork… I'm only a half-ghost, I'm still alive… how can I be crowned the… 'King of the Dead' if I'm not dead? It doesn't make sense…" Danny asked, his head shaking in denial.

"You may still be alive, but you have defeated the Ghost King, you have a Ghost Form and as such you have a lair in the Ghost Zone-"

"I do?" Danny gasped, this being news to him for sure.

"Yes Daniel, you do, and once you come of age and are crowned, that lair will become the newest kingdom in the ghost zone. It will take over Pariah's Keep as the, for lack of better term, capital of the Zone," Clockwork explained.

"Okay… but I still don't get why I'm this new king… I mean, I didn't defeat Pariah along, I had help, I even used my parent's ecto-skeleton to heighten my power because I couldn't defeat him. I wasn't trying to over throw him when I took the crown away and locked him back in the sarcophagus, Vlad was the one who locked the thing, not me."

Clockwork shock his head, "Vlad may have locked the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep but you are the one who took the Crown away from Pariah. A Millennia ago when the ancient ghost's rebelled and locked Pariah away, they did not take the crown from him, so he kept his title and power as the King of the Ghost Zone. But you did take the crown and now that you are approaching your twenty first birthday, great change is coming to the Ghost Zone like no ghost has memory of before."

"Change? What change?" Sam asked.

"Few in the Zone truly understand the workings of the Zone and how it is powered. While it is the home of ghosts, filled with ectoplasm, the place where lost spirits materialize and live, there is still a single source of power to the Zone. That source of power is the King of the Zone. For long as any ghost can remember that power has come from Pariah Dark but now that power will soon come solely from you, Daniel," Clockwork explained.

"From me?" Danny asked, incredulously, "How could I possible have enough power to fuel the whole Ghost Zone?!"

"When you are crowned and put on the Crown of Fire and Ring of Rage, the Ghost Zone will shift from drawing power from Pariah to instead draw it from you. The Crown and Ring will increase your power exponentially. At that point Pariah will lose much of his power, he will not be released from the Sarcophagus but if he ever would be released, he will have returned to how he was before he became King."

"You're serious about all this, aren't you?" Danny asked. "This isn't some joke you felt like pulling?" Knowing full well that wasn't the way Clockwork worked.

"I assure you Daniel, this is all true," Clockwork replied.

"So… if the Ghost Zone will draw power from Danny, how will that work when he is in his human form? When he lives here in the human plain?" Sam asked, her had squeezing Danny's, their drinks long forgotten on the coffee table.

Sadness filled Clockworks expression as his face fell and he gazed at the floor. "Daniel will not be able to live here in the human plain anymore Sam. Once the Coronation is complete and the Zone draws its power from Daniel he will have to remain there. He will be unable to leave without becoming weak and exhausted."

"What! Clockwork! No! I can't LIVE in the Ghost Zone! I have a family! Sam is pregnant if you couldn't tell! I can't leave her to go run some kingdom I never asked for!" Danny shouted, standing up from the couch, his fists at his side, glowing green with energy.

"You will not have a choice Daniel," Clockwork said sadly.

"I won't do it! I won't except some dumb crown! Give it to someone else!"

"It doesn't work that way Daniel-"

"I don't care! You can't come to my home and tell me to leave my family behind! I have a life here, if I were fully dead maybe it would be different but I'm not!"

"Do you think I don't know this Daniel? Do you think I want to tear you away from your wife and child? From your dream of being an astronaut?" Clockwork said coldly. "But I don't control the way the Zone works. If you refuse to be crowned the Ghost Zone and all who reside in it will likely parish. Every ghost and spirit of the Zone will become the source of the Zone's power if you refuse and it will drain us dry until we have no power left. The Zone will cease to exist and with it all ectoplasmic beings. Including you, Vlad Plasmius and Danielle Phantom… and quite possibly your child."

Danny and Sam froze. "What?" Sam whispered. Her hands grasped at her growing belly.

"I cannot say if the child is an ectoplasmic being or not being as no half-ghost has ever procreated before. Your child might turn out to only be a normal human giving the likely circumstances of his or her conception but should he or she one day develop ghostly powers naturally due to his or her lineage, then the absence of a Zone will harm him or her as it will harm all half-ghosts."

"You're threatening my child, Clockwork?" Danny hissed, venom in his voice.

"No, I am simply telling you what could come to pass should you not take the crown," the ghost of time stated, his form shifting from an old man to a child as he hovered in the air in front of them.

"Danny?" Sam's voice quivered with fear, her arms wrapped around her middle as if this would protect her baby from Clockworks words.

Danny turned to look at Sam, fear in his own eyes. He sank down beside her and wrapped his arms about her, unable to find words to comfort her with.

"Why are you only telling me this now, Clockwork?" Danny asked, "Why didn't you tell me this when I was fourteen? Or before Sam got pregnant at least? You were able to warn me about _him_ , why not about this?"

"I did not know at the time Daniel. The signs did not appear until recently. A millennium ago when Pariah was defeated, everyone in the Zone speculated that one of the ghosts that trapped him would become King. There were ghosts that wanted to become King, Aargon's father was one of them, but as time passed and the Zone continued to draw power from Pariah it became apparent that he was still the rightful King of the Ghost Zone. This sent the newly established kingdoms into war over who would reign over the Zone. Many of those ancient ghosts responsible for defeating Pariah perished themselves in the fighting and eventually the ghosts of the Zone simply gave up. With no acting king each kingdom became a separate entity and ghosts that lived alone simply continued as if there was no king. Aargon took over his kingdom from his father when he perished, the Far Frozen too crowned their own ruler. The Ghost Zone broke into many different kingdoms but what didn't change was where the Zone itself drew its power.

'I believed when Pariah was release and again resealed inside the sarcophagus that nothing would change. Pariah still lived, he was still powering the Zone for the following months and then years, I had no reason to believe anything would change, even the time stream did not show me this change would come. It is the power of the Zone, not of Time that had been affected by you defeating Pariah.

'But recently the Zone has begun to change. You lair is growing larger than most lairs, especially for one who does not even live there to help it grow. Every ghost has noticed the shift, the feel of the Zone is changing, morphing. As I have said, no ghost remembers a time before Pariah, I had to go searching for answers when all this began, and it led me to the Ghost Writer and his library.

'Deep inside I discovered an ancient account of the Zone, and it's previous Kings. When I asked Ghost Writer about the book, he could not tell me anything about it, he himself did not recognize the book. It wrote of Kings and Queens no ghost remembers, of dates going back more millennia then I ever knew the Zone to have existed. And it explained what the changes meant. And what had caused them.

'Daniel, by taking away the Crown of Fire from the Ghost King, the Zone itself has acknowledged you as the future Ghost King. While you were still under age, especially being the first half-ghost king, the Zone did not immediately switch, and you were allowed to grow at your own pace, gaining power and experience without the Zone drawing power from you. But now as you approach maturity the Zone has begun the process of changing Kings.

'In the past some kings were, as you asked about earlier, born to former kings and thus inherited the throne. In those instances, the Zone changed slowly as the new ghost king gained maturity. Other times when the King was over thrown by other ghosts the change happened instantly. However, the king was always overthrown by a ghost who was already of age. Since you were not of age the Zone appears to be acting as it did when the throne is inherited. This, according to the text, appears to be a first. Not only were you not of age, but you are also only half-ghost. Perhaps had you become a full ghost before now it would have switched over sooner, I cannot say, but it is switching now. Your kingdom is being built by the Zone as we speak and on your twenty first birthday it will become yours and your power will be what the Zone draws on."

Clockwork finished his speech with finality, gazing at the young couple before him. Tears were racing down Sam's cheeks and Danny stroked her hair, unable to find words to say to Clockwork or to comfort Sam as the room fell into an eerie silence broken only be Sam's erratic breathing. Danny looked away from Clockwork eventually, not saying a word to him. Clockwork bowed his head, knowing it would take the young pair a while to let the news sink in.

"I will take my leave for now, Daniel Fenton. But I will be back when you are ready to see me, I am still searching for more answers among the pages of the ancient text. No ghost remembers a Coronation of a new King, much needs to be learned in the next few weeks before then. Take a little time to come to terms with this and should I learn anything new, I will be back sooner. Until then, I bid you farewell."

Danny turned to look at Clockwork and nodded his consent but said nothing in reply. Clockwork simply nodded, summoning his power to open his portal before he vanished, leaving the young couple sitting alone in their living room. Their small perfect world, shattered.

 ** _Posted 10/15/18_**

Well, that ended on a much sadder note then I originally anticipated... On to part three! Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	12. Chapter 12: One Fateful Day (Part 3)

_**Chapter Twelve: One Fateful Day (Part 3)**_

 _Friday, November 1st, 2003 (Flashback)_

"You have to go," those were Sam's first words after Clockwork left. He had been gone for nearly an hour before she spoke.

"But we… and you…" Danny tried.

"It doesn't matter, or more, it's the only thing that matters… if what he says is true and you _don't_ go, you and Dani might end up fully dead… and the baby…" Sam sighed. "I'd rather live knowing you're in the ghost zone, _alive and well_ , then live knowing you could have been saved and wondering if someday I'll lose this one too," Sam said, her hand resting on her belly.

"But… I don't know the first thing about being a king… running a country, no, a whole world? What good would I be doing that?" Danny tried asking.

"You would be the perfect choice Danny. After everything you've done? You've saved the world multiple times already. You helped Dora when you were only fourteen-"

"I didn't have a clue what I was doing back then, I just winged it every time something happened. Half that stuff I wouldn't have survived without you and Tucker…" Danny said, cutting her off.

"You would have survived, it just would have taken you longer to get the job done," Sam corrected him.

He gave a half laugh at her reasoning, but also gave her a weak smile, "Thanks." The smile fell from his face quickly though. "I won't be able to be here for you and the baby… I can't help you from the Ghost Zone, I doubt any money in there will work in the living plane…"

"Danny, I'm okay with money, I have my job and plenty of investments to keep us well off," Sam reminded him.

"How are you taking this so calmly? I'm freaking out inside over here," Danny murmured.

"Maybe I am too?" Sam suggested, "But… maybe a part of me always wondered if you wouldn't leave for the Ghost Zone sooner or later…"

"What?! What made you think that?!" Danny cried, hurt in his eyes.

"I thought it more when we were younger, that being Danny Phantom was so important to you maybe you would one day want to stay there. You had friends there, Frostbite, Dora, even Pandora. How could I not notice you were happy as a super human ghost boy?"

"I didn't always want to-"

"There were days you wanted to be normal, yeah, but each and every time that happened… you fought to return to being Phantom. Ghost is a part of you Danny. Just like technology is with Tucker and campaigning is with me. You don't like being a plumber no matter what you try and make me believe."

"Doesn't mean I want to be a ghost king instead…"

"Well… no, but can you honestly say you wouldn't be happy to be Phantom more often? I know you love your late-night flights, I can see it in your eyes when you leave and when you come back. That's a bigger part of who you are then you are letting it be."

"Sounds like your trying to get rid of me," Dany grumbled.

"No… I just don't want to be the one to hold you back from something that could be amazing. Besides, who's to say I can't come visit you every day? Maybe I can live in the castle with you, I've been in there plenty of times before,"

"Walker won't see it that way,"

"You will be walker's new king, you can boss him around instead of him bossing you around. Maybe he'll finally stop calling you 'Punk'.

"I doubt that, he's too fond of that term to stop using it. I broke out of his prison one too many times," Danny smiled.

"See, you enjoy reliving your old days as a super human ghost boy."

"Would you stop that," Danny laughed. "Super Human Ghost Boy? That's worse than Inviso-Bill."

"Nothing's worse than 'Inviso-Bill'" Sam replied.

"Okay, maybe not, but still, it sounds so… silly," Danny sighed.

"You're right, King Phantom sounds much cooler," Sam smiled.

"King- oh wow… what…what am I going to tell Jazz and Tucker? Your parents? What am I going to tell MY PARENTS?"

 _ **DP DP DP**_

 _Friday, November 1st, 2003 (Flashback)_

"King of the Ghost Zone!? DANNY? You've got to be joking me!" Tucker laughed, bending forwards and clutching his middle as he laughed at what he assumed was a bad joke.

"And now I have to leave here and live in the Ghost Zone or it will vanish and every ghost in existence, including half ghosts, will vanish forever," Danny said sadly, knowing Tucker would calm down to listen soon enough, once he figured out it wasn't a joke.

"Leave? Like leave forever and never come back?" Jazz asked, her face paling even more then after Danny's first announcement.

"King of the Ghost Zone, that's rich, ha! Is this some set up for a big 21st birthday bash you and Sam are planning?" Tucker asked, his laughs reduced to giggles he still couldn't control.

"That's what Clockwork said…" Danny hung his head and his shoulders slumped forwards until his elbows rested on his knees to support his upper body.

The three of them were in the living room of Danny and Sam's house. Danny had invited the two over after they were off work for some 'news'. Jazz was convinced it would be about the gender of the baby or who the godparents would be. You know, something _less_ life changing.

"Danny… what about the baby? And Sam? What does she think about all this? Where is she?" Jazz asked, both ignoring Tucker still.

"She's laying down upstairs, she didn't get to sleep too long last night because of the little monster," Danny said with a hint of fondness in his saddened tone. "She said I have to go, she'd rather… live knowing I was alive and well then… the other options…"

"Haha, King, that's a good one," Tucker finally relaxed enough to listen to the conversation. He gazed, smiling, at the two siblings in front of him. The smile slowly sliding off his face. "You _are_ joking… right? This _is_ a joke."

Danny shook his head. "It's not a joke Tuck."

"Not… but, Sam… and us? Your life here?" Tuck rebutted, sounding just as Danny had earlier that day and Jazz had earlier that moment.

"I don't have a choice Tucker…" Danny answered.

Tucker only gazed at Danny with sadness in his eyes. "No choice…? There's… no way for you to stay in the child's life… is there?"

"Clockwork… even he doesn't know of a way around this and he only just found out I was inheriting the throne," Danny explained. Tucker nodded slowly in understanding.

"Inheriting? But- what?" Jazz gaped.

"Something about me taking the crown from Pariah Dark personally combined with me being only half ghost and very young at the time, the Ghost Zone is 'acting' as if I am inheriting the throne rather than overthrowing the king and taking it," Danny continued. "I still don't quite understand it myself. And apparently my castle is developing in the Zone as we speak."

"That's kinda freaky, man," Tucker replied.

"Yeah, I know."

"But dude, what are you going to tell your parents about this? They still don't even know you're Phantom. They still think Phantom is the scum of the Ghost Zone…" Tucker asked.

"I know, somehow I have to come up with a story to explain…"

"No."

The three turned to see Sam standing in the door way.

"What?"

"I said, no. Danny," Sam walked further into the room before sitting down beside her husband. "It's time you came clean, it's time we all came clean. Maddie and Jack have been in the dark long enough. It's time we trusted them with the truth. They accepted you before, they will again."

Danny gazed into Sam's eyes, worried and unsure.

"She's right Danny," Jazz added, standing up to stand beside her brother, and rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's time they joined Team Phantom, even if we don't do any ghost hunting anymore."

"But-"

"Come on, what's the worst that can happen?" Jazz asked, trying to lighten the mood.

"I can think of a few things…" Tucker mumbled to himself, but his warning went unheard by his friends.

 ** _Posted 11/5/18_**

What did you think? Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling and inspired.

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	13. Chapter 13: One Fateful Day (Part 4)

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR THIS STORY, PLEASE DON'T SKIP

I wanted to include a scene I thought was found in _Reign Storm_ , but when I went to include it, I realized that it was part of a different episode, _Phantom Planet_ , which I stated before, does not exist in this story. I also found I hardly remembered the scene correctly for what actually happened. (Sheepish emoji face here) The scene:

 _Danny has removed his powers but then needs to save everyone from the Disaseroid, he goes into the Ghost Zone and the Ghost Zone ghosts attack him and he randomly gets his powers back, defeating them all in the process._

So, this scene has the potential to have a very big impact on Danny's life, on him being a halfa and also on his relationship with the Ghost Zone ghosts. I want to include it the way I originally envisioned.

To do that I need to tweak the real scene to be something different. Rather than throw in a flashback inside a flashback (and to make Danny's words not so long winded) I'll simply give you the run-down of what I want to have happen in that scene.

 _Danny has removed his powers but needs them back to save everyone from Pariah Dark. He goes to find all the Ghost Zone ghosts and asks them for help. They pool their energy into a beam (attack if you want to call it that) and the resulting burst of ectoplasm reawakens the ectoplasm in Danny's blood, thus returning his powers. He then goes off and defeats Pariah Dark with the help of the Ecto-skeleton suit like we all remember_.

So… for the sake of this being FanFicion… let us pretend that this scene was part of _Reign Storm_ … okay? Thanks!

 _ **Chapter Thirteen: One Fateful Day (Part 4)**_

 _Saturday, November 2st, 2003 (Flashback)_

The following evening found the group of four and the elder Fenton's surrounding the dinner table, deep in conversations about collage, futures, babies, and – of course – ghosts. The women claimed half of the table and were deep in a discussion about babies, newborns, names and everything baby related. (Labor and other…topics were saved for boy free moments). The guys on the other hand talked about jobs and ghosts, though Danny did his best to keep the topic on jobs and collage, it's near impossible to keep Jack Fenton off the topic of ghosts for very long.

The whole evening had started out because Jazz commented about never having any family time now that they were all in school. When Maddie suggested a dinner, Jazz jumped on the idea, planning it in under fifteen minuets and inviting Tucker along for the ride. "He might as well be family," was her argument. But the topic keeping the four young adults on the quiet side was the real reason behind this gathering. They hadn't discussed a plan, Danny becoming too nervous ever time Jazz suggested a way to tell their parents. They had settled on 'winging it'. Something that seemed to be becoming Danny's new catch phrase.

So here they sat, surrounding the table that hadn't changed since high school, sitting in the kitchen that hadn't changed since high school, talking about ghosts, that hadn't changed since high school either…

"This is the new and improved, Fenton Fisher! Ever since the ghosts started staying in the Zone this is the only way to get new specimens for research! All I must do is throw this puppy's line into the Fenton Portal and wait! Any ghost within a hundred-yard radius will be caught in its' pull and drawn in! They don't even have to take the bait! Those ghosts won't know what hit them!" Jack Fenton shouted, jumping up and demonstrating how he would cast the line into an imaginary portal only to knock a canister of flour off the counter and bring it crashing to the floor.

"Jack," Maddie said sternly, "No weapons at the dinner table, please. That's the fourth time this week you've knocked something over, and it's only Tuesday!"

"Yes dear…" Jack mumbled, striding over to the fallen kitchen item and beginning to clean up the mess. "But you'll see, soon I'll have new specimens to do lots and lots of painful experiments on!"

The four friends exchanged worried glances. While Danny was convinced this wouldn't be good, Jazz took this comment to try and do some good.

"You know, Dad, Mom, ghosts really haven't been a problem in a few years now. When was the last time you two actually saw a ghost in the living world?" she stated, trying to bring around a better subject then experimentation.

"That's what they want you to think, Jazzy-pants! But they're out there just bidding their time until we let our guard down, then BAM! They take over the world before you can blink!"

Danny's forehead met the table with a rather painful _thud_.

"Remember, the Ghost King did try to do just that right here in Amity," Maddie reminded the table. As if any of them needed reminding.

"But Phantom defeated the Ghost King and saved us all, remember, he nearly died trying," Jazz corrected her mother.

"That was just to get on our good side and make us think-"

"That ghost did more for this town than any of the humans here. The Guys in White never caught a ghost, the ghostcateers** were just as bad – no offence. Even the Red Huntress would _work with_ Phantom when the time called for it!" Jazz reasoned.

"I would like to remind you Jazz that your father and I have done plenty for this town. Our ghost shield saved the population during the King's attack, we kept the school safe when ghosts focused on it and-"

"I'm not saying you guys never helped the town. I'm just saying that Phantom saved more then just the people or the school. He kept the whole world safe," she said, looking to her brother and his wife. "Remember when the ghost plant took over Sam? Phantom saved her, she wouldn't be here today without him."

Sam nodded solemnly at the memory, Danny wrapped an arm around her and she leaned into him. Jazz opened her mouth to continue but Tucker piped up first.

"When that ghost bug infected the whole school, it was Phantom that defeated the ghost and released all the kids from the infection. And when Ember was trying to take over the whole world, he stopped the broadcast, and her singing," Tucker reminded the parents, shivering at the memory of the hospital.

"All attempts to lead us into a false sense of security," Maddie explained. "Haven't we taught you all enough about ghosts that you know this by now? They are dangerous creatures."

"Why?"

The room fell silent at the question. Danny continued.

"What proof, solid, hard, repeatable proof, do you have that all ghosts are nothing but evil, vengeful creatures?" he asked his parents.

"Isn't ever attack on this town enough proof?"

"A few bad eggs escaped the Zone, that doesn't mean every single ghost out there is evil. Humans kill other humans every day, but we don't throw the entire population in jail for it," Danny reminded them.

"Danny, ghosts only know hate and revenge. They don't understand and can't feel things like sympathy, or understanding, happiness or joy," Maddie said in a soothing tone.

"I've seen Phantom laugh with glee as he flew through the night sky a time or two when we were younger. No other ghost was around. Nothing to cause him to be there other then flying around," Jazz said. "Skulker had fun hunting Phantom all the time."

Danny scoffed at this. "Yeah, fun," he mumbled under his breath.

"Every ghost that attacked seemed to be having fun in what they were doing. They never seemed full of hate to me," Jazz said. "I studied their behaviors for years for my thesis paper. They showed a plethora of emotions other than hate."

Maddie and Jack looked exasperated at their daughter, but she kept going.

"I documented Ember at her concerts showing joy and happiness as she sang, if not a little pompous and self-absorbed also. The Technus ghost showed pride in his abilities. Even the Lunch lady ghost showed concern about the silly school menu. I proved in my paper that ghosts can show every emotion that humans can. You read my paper, you should know," she ended her mini speech looking to her parents expectantly.

Maddie sat for a few moments before speaking. "Ghosts are very good at acting, Jazz. You only showed your paper to us after it had been approved by professors at Yale and Harvard. I didn't want to tell you that your paper was wrong when you worked so hard at it. Jazz dear, I'm sorry but, ghosts are manipulative. They turn everything into a benefit for themselves and nothing more."

The look on Jazz's face was heartbreaking. The room fell silent after Maddie's revelation.

"Look, why don't we change the subject, we will just have to agree to disagree about ghosts for now. You are grown enough to choose your ideals. You obviously already have. Let's try to enjoy the evening. We could play some board games or card games in the living room," Maddie said, rising from the table and picking up her plate. She left the Team at the table, Jack still paused mid-clean up of the flour.

"I'll… I'll be back, I need to…," but whatever Jazz needed she never answered. She rose from her chair and left the kitchen silently, not bothering to pick up her plate or help clean the table.

"I'm going to go make sure she's okay," Sam murmured to Danny.

"Okay," Danny nodded his agreement. He kissed Sam on the forehead before allowing his wife to stand up and leave the room.

In the awkwardness that followed Jack finished cleaning up the spilled flour before saying something about putting the Fenton Fisher away. Tucker offered to set up a board game in the living room, leaving Danny alone with his mom as she picked up the plates off the table, some only half eaten.

Danny thought he should be upset about what his mother said, he was a ghost after all, that she still hadn't changed her mind after all he had done as Phantom. But that wasn't the reason he was upset. It was for Jazz, her hurt at what her mother had said weighed more heavily on his heart after all that had transpired than his parents' opinion of his second half.

He slowly rose from his seat and picked up his plate. Continuing on he picked up Sam's and Jazz's plates as well and carried them to the sink where he stacked them by the other plates. He returned to the table and silently cleaned it off while his mother washed the dishes and put the food away. Jack didn't return from the basement lab and the girls didn't make a reappearance either.

"Mom?" Danny asked after minutes of silence.

"Yes, Danny," she asked timidly, a bit of sadness in her voice as well.

"What made you feel this way about ghosts in the first place. Before Phantom showed up… you had never even met a ghost. Dad had never seen a ghost either… but both of you were always _so adamant_ about their nature… why was that?"

"Your father had never seen a ghost but… I had…"

"What? You never said-"

"Of course not, when it first happened, I was too young to know it was a ghost to begin with, it wasn't until I was older that I realized just what I'd seen," Maddie explained.

"What was it? What happened?" Danny asked.

"I was small, no more then seven or eight when I'd had a horrible nightmare. Alicia and I shared a room at the time, but she was at a friend's house for the night, so I went to my parent's room. I just wanted some reassuring words from my mother. Maybe a hug and an 'it's okay, it was only a dream.' I never reached their room. On the way I passed by my father's study. The door was ajar for some reason, and he never left it open. When I looked in, I saw someone standing at his desk. They were wearing a cloak and they had a glow to them. A glow I'd never seen before. The room was trashed, papers everywhere, books on the floor. And the bookcase was pushed aside. A man was putting money into a bag from a safe I never knew was there. I heard him mumbling about my parents and them destroying stuff, that they'd get what was coming to them. Then he turned to the cloaked figure and the two vanished through the wall. I thought I must be dreaming again, surly I was still asleep. How could someone just vanish? I went back to my room without ever seeing my parents."

"I woke in the morning to angry shouting. My father was in his study, shouting about thieves and calling the cops. They came but not a trace was found. Instead the police found evidence that my father had committed fraud within his company. Suddenly my father was shouting about being framed as the police arrested him. I tried to tell them about the people in the room that night, what I thought I saw, that I thought at first it was a dream, but that it must have been real. But no one believed the words of a child over the physical evidence the room provided."

"Years later, when I was in high school and my father had been in prison for nearly a decade I went to visit him and begged him to tell me the truth, to tell me if he did commit fraud and if he was the reason me and my mother and sister were scraping out a living after all he had done. He was animate that he had been framed. He claimed he knew who it was too. A customer that he had turned down a loan to for inadequate reliability."

"I went home and looked though some old paperwork, searched the internet until I tracked down the person he spoke of. I found they had passed away due to illness only a year after my father's arrest."

"On a whim I went to the last place they'd lived. It was an old man who had lived alone, the house had never been purchased after his death and it was a wreck. Falling down and every bit the stereotypical haunted house."

"Inside… I encountered the man's ghost. It was glowing in the same way the second person had that night. He screamed at me to leave him alone in death, but when he got a look at me, he recognized me. Knew at once who I was. That's when he started screaming about the scum my father was, how he had plotted to get my father back for destroying his life, how even as he lay on his death bed he wouldn't give up on revenge and how he had waited so long for an opportunity like this."

"I thought I was going to die that day, in his house, never to be found," Maddie trailed off. Her eyes unfocused as she wiped a plate clean.

Danny was speechless at first, never had he heard this story before. He knew his grandfather had died in prison, but his mother had never talked about what put him there. He was too young to remember his grandmother, she died when he was a small child so there was never a chance to ask her about it. He couldn't believe his mother had been hiding all this for so many years. Did his father even know this story?

"What happened? How did you get away?" he asked after his mom returned to washing the dishes.

"I still couldn't tell you today how I got away, how it was he didn't kill me right then and there. In my fear I suppose I was able to escape, flight over fight took over. Perhaps he didn't have enough corporal ectoplasm to physically touch me. All I knew was when I got outside, there were long scratches across my back and on my arm where he had tried to grab me. Some part of him must have been strong enough to touch me in some way, but that was it."

"I never went back to that house, even after I started studying ghosts and ectoplasm. Not long after that my father died. There didn't seem a point in pursuing a deeper investigation. If going back there was required, how could I know I would survive a second visit? That's when I met your father and Vlad. We started developing weapons and the ghost portal. You know the rest. After everything in collage, I decided to leave it in the past, focus on a future instead. And I got your sister and you, a good family, I was happy, am happy. Why open up old wounds?" Maddie finished, placing the last plate on the stack of cleaned dishes.

"So that man's ghost, the one that tried to kill you, was your first experience with ghosts?" Danny asked.

His mother turned away from the sink to look at him.

"In a way, yes. I do believe the second person with him at my home that night was also a ghost, but I never could remember anything about them other than the glow and a cloak. They had to be helping him to get revenge on my father. I know the man's wife died a few years earlier so perhaps it was her ghost hell bent on destroying my father," Maddie replied.

Danny nodded. "So, a ghost helped rob your home and destroy your family, and the second ghost tried to destroy you personally," Danny murmured. "I guess I can see why you would hate ghosts after all that happened… Once ghosts started appearing here, destroying the school, attacking the town… what cause would you have to think any of them could be good…"

"What cause do you have to think any of them _are_ good?" his mother rebutted, throwing a sharp edge into her question.

He paused, blinking at her. Perhaps… just… start small…

"I've meet some of the nicer ghosts… seen even the 'evil' ones fight for a good cause when they were in jeopardy," he said slowly.

"What?! When and how?" he mother asked angrily.

"I… well…" he sighed. "I guess I should have told you sooner but… It started when… well, remember the anniversary where you went to see your sister about her devoice? Dad forgot the gift at home?"

"Yes, Jazz and you brought it for him," Maddie said, nodding.

"Yes, well before we could do that… I kinda sorta, accidently knocked it into the Ghost Portal and thus into the Ghost Zone…" he said, laughing a little at his mother's expression. "I got Sam and Tucker to come with me to go retrieve it… got into a scrape or two with the ghosts in there to get it back but we made it out alive, obviously… you got the gift after all. But after that I tended to take the Specter Speeder into the Zone to explore it… It was intriguing and kinda close to feeling like I was exploring space, well, it was green instead of dark black, but it was fun."

"You, what?" his mother gasped.

"Yeah… I've been in there more then a few times," he said, his eyes drifting to the lab door. "I meet ghost that don't come to our world. Who live full time in the Zone and have no desire to enter the living realm. Most of those ghosts are pretty decent people, well, if they _are_ people. Frostbite is the leader of a whole village of yeti ghosts. They live in an ice and snow land and know a lot about technology and medicine. And Clockwork, he's the Ghost of Time, talks in riddles all the time, keeps the world heading in the right direction."

Danny didn't look to his mom while saying all this. But after a few silent moments he turned back to her and, as he assumed, saw her shocked face, slightly horrified, slightly impressed.

"There are others, too. Pandora, you might remember her from when the Box Ghost opened her box… She said she keeps her box to save the world from the horrors inside it, not to threaten the world with it… Um… there's Wulf… he's a bit daunting looking but he only wants to live in peace away from Walker and his goons. There's-"

"DANNY! How many times did you go into the Ghost Zone without telling us!" his mother screamed at him, her face horrified in more than one way. He could hear his father hurrying up the stairs after his mother's scream. Even Jazz, Sam and Tucker peeked around the corner from the living room.

"More time then I can count, mom," he answered truthfully.

"What happened! Is it a ghost!?" Jack shouted as he burst through the doorway, Fenton Bazooka in hand.

"Jack! Your son has just informed me that he took the Spector Speeder into the Ghost Zone so many times that he actually has _friends_ that are ghosts!" Maddie exclaimed in anger.

"He – what?!" Jack stopped dead in his tracks, looking from his wife to his son. "But I wanted to be the first one to take it in there…" he whined before catching sight of his wife's expression and adjusting his features to look angry instead. "I mean – how could you do something so dangerous?! Daniel! You are grounded!"

"Dad, I don't live here, you can't ground me," Danny reminded his father.

"Oh… right…"

"Danny how could you even think something like that was a good idea? You could have been killed and we would never have known what happened to you. And to take Sam and Tucker in with you? I never took you for being so reckless!" Maddie noticed the three young adults at the doorway. "Did you know about this Jazz?"

"Um… not at first, but… I did figure it out after a few months…" she trailed off, catching that even with all the shouting that the full story wasn't revealed quite yet.

"Mom, maybe we should sit down in the living room, I could… tell you more… if you'd like?" Danny ventured, hoping to calm her down. If she was this mad about him going in the Zone, how would she feel about him becoming it's King?

"What more is there?" she asked with near terror in her voice.

"Um… lets… just… sit down first," Danny said, gesturing to the living room.

It took some persuading to get his mother and father into the living room. They clearly didn't want to wait to see what possible more horrifying things he had done as a teen. He was glad he didn't live at home after what had transpired already.

Five minutes later they were seated around the coffee table. Tucker had indeed set up a board game, but it was ignored, pushed aside to make room for a couple glasses of water.

"Are you alright, mom?" Danny asked, seeing her expression after they had all sat down. She was almost looking at him in fear.

"What more could you possible have to tell us that I need to be sitting down for, Danny?" she asked him.

"Well, dad needed to be sitting down too," Danny tried but that didn't lighten the mood one bit.

"What did I miss exactly?" Jack asked, still a bit confused.

"Ask your son," Maddie replied.

"Well dad… Sam and Tucker and I took to flying the Spector Speeder into the Ghost Zone when we were in middle school…," Danny began. "Along the way we meet some ghosts that I happen to befriend. I was… trying to… let you know that not all ghosts are evil creatures. That I've met the nice ones and that they do exist in the Zone, they just chose to not leave it the way Skulker or Ember do."

"Nice ghosts? You've befriended ghost? What ever made you think that was a good idea? They are evil piles of-"

"No, they aren't, and I would appreciate it if you would _stop_ referring to them that way!" Danny said sternly, his voice just below a shout.

Maddie and Jack stared at their son. Speechless. He continued on.

"I know lots of ghosts. Some are my enemies, yes, but some are close friends and ally's that I would be dead dead if I hadn't met them when I did. Some of them have saved my life. They have even saved your lives a time or two without you even knowing it. Clockwork specifically saved your lives, all of you… and erased your memory of that day…" Danny murmured, his eyes on the carpet as he remembered that horrible day. Sam took his hand in hers. "Frostbite saved my life when I was very sick as well. Wulf saved me a few times from Walker, the Ghost Zone warden who took to trying and locking me in ghost jail for a couple thousand years… and I… I in turn saved them whenever I could."

At that last statement he lifted his head to look his parents in the eyes. They were shocked, naturally, but neither seemed to have a voice to speak with.

"They are all our friends too," Sam put in. "I know a ghost princess named Dora pretty well, and visit her if we go to the Zone, we haven't been in a few years though."

"Cujo is always a laugh if he shows up," Tucker snickered.

"Are you kidding? He won't stop playing fetch! Last time he showed up he didn't let me get a wink of sleep, we played fetch until the sun came up. I know I wanted a puppy as a kid, but he was not what I expected," Danny mumbled.

Sam and Tucker giggled at that comment.

"The ghost dog you told me about? The one that transforms?" Jazz asked. Danny nodded the affirmative.

"But even some of the more annoying ghosts can be useful sometimes," Tucker reminded them. "Remember when you sicced him on Vlad? Ah, good times."

Danny had to give a small nod in agreement.

His gaze drifted over to his silent parents, waiting for them to scream some more, or maybe faint. After all, the kids they thought they knew for twenty years just went and flipped their world upside down. And he wasn't even finished yet.

The other three turned to the parents as well, Jazz a bit worried, Sam and Tucker more defensive. Jack was the one who found his voice first. However, his question was directed at Jazz.

"All of you guys have ghostly friends?" he asked.

Jazz nodded in agreement. "I haven't been to the Zone anywhere near as often as these three, but I do know some of the ghosts they've mentioned and have met a few of them as well. It helped me with my paper… I've met and talked with ghosts, every word of my essay was based on my personal experiences with ghosts over the years," she explained, focusing her answer to her father.

"But ghosts are manipulative-"

"Some are, yes," Jazz cut her father off. "Plasmius, Nocturne, Undergrowth, even Johnny 13 was manipulative, but that doesn't mean every ghost is the same way."

"All these years you kept telling us how Phantom was such a good ghost, how we should see him as a hero, yet… you haven't mentioned him being one of your friends… why is that? Why speak so highly of him… if he isn't your friend?" Jack asked, surprising the four young adults.

"Well, Phantom is a special case for me," Jazz said slowly. "The first time I met him was after he saved my life when a ghost, Penelope Spectra, tried to kill me at the Spirit Week Rally. After a few more encounters… I learned more about him and… he learned he could trust me too."

To her surprise, her parents waited for her to keep talking.

"You see, he tried very hard to be the best hero he could be, forgoing certain necessities so he could keep the town safe. You know he took the Suit when he fought the Ghost King. Well, that suit nearly killed him all the way. He also nearly froze to death when his ice powers developed, and I know Danny's friend, Frostbite, saved his… afterlife… so he could come save us and Sam."

"If he was so heroic, why did he steal the jewels and kidnap the mayor?" Maddie countered. "Those were his true colors showing throu-"

"Remember I mentioned the Ghost warden, Walker?" Danny said, cutting his mom off. "Well, the mayor was actually overshadowed by Walker at the time, that's why his eyes were red. It was actually Walker that made it appear that Phantom was kidnapping the mayor when it was really Phantom that was being held captive by Walker in the Mayor's body," Danny explained slowly. "The jewels were also forced. The ringmaster, Freakshow, had a scepter that controlled ghosts. Phantom wasn't in control of his body at the time. His eyes glowed red instead of green, an indication that all isn't what it seems. He barely broke free of that in time to save Sam from dying from a fall…"

Danny's solemn tone kept his parents quiet while Sam hugged Danny, whispering in his ear some words of comfort that his parents didn't pick up on.

"Danny, you've mentioned so many times about how Sam and even we nearly died because of ghosts interfering in the living world," Maddie began. Danny raised his head to look at her and nodded in agreement. "So… why do you defend them so much when they could have caused you to lose the love of your life?"

Danny turned to look at Sam, he even gazed for a moment at her growing belly. He looked back at his mom. "Because I know them, mom. They are my friends. Frostbite, Clockwork, even Skulker can be friendly sometimes. Every ghost that has caused me pain… also helped me save all of you. When… when…" he broke off, trying to find words to make this easier, make it less of a blow. To help his parents figure out what he was saying without him having to say it first. He tried starting over. "I had given up… a power I obtained… this power had caused my life many problems. It interfered with school, with both of you, with eating and sleeping, it even ruined friendships. Not long after that, everyone I ever loved fell victim to a danger I could have previously saved them from. I needed my power back but wasn't sure how, if it was even possible. The ghosts of the Ghost Zone helped me get it back. They gave me back the ability to save everyone."

His parents stared at him in confusion. "Power? Danny, you aren't making any sense. What are you talking about?" Maddie asked, a hint of fear returning to her voice.

"I'm talking about something I've kept from you guys for years…" Danny said at last. He was going to do it. This was it. No turning back now so he surged ahead. "It's the reason I skipped so much school or slept through classes and never did my homework. It's the reason Jazz tried so hard to get you guys to approve of ghosts, of one certain ghost. It's the reason the ghost portal works after you originally couldn't get it to. Mostly it's the reason why none of us have listed Phantom as a ghost ally."

"Because Phantom isn't just an ally, he isn't even just a ghost… he's… me. Mom, Dad, _I'm Danny Phantom_. And I have been since I died at the age of fourteen inside the ghost portal."

Silence rung throughout the room after Danny's announcement. All four young adults watched the two parents, waiting for a reaction, for a sign of movement, for any sign of life at all.

It was Maddie that spoke first, in a whisper. "That's not possible. This… this is a joke. Phantom must be tricking you into this, making you believe something that can't be possible. All ghosts are scum, liars and manipulators, Danny, I've told you this over and over, why haven't you ever believed me!

"Because WE aren't all scum!" Danny shouted.

His parents gasped.

"Yes, I said it. _WE,_ Mom, _we. US ghosts_ are not all scum. WE are not beings of ectoplasmic filth given thought and form. WE are sentient beings who feel happiness and joy, _pain and fear_.

"Danny, don't group yourself with those things-"

"Why not? I have every power they have, more even. I control my own visibility, tangibility and flight without conscience thought. I can lift objects 100 times my weight without strain. I can produce a devastating scream that will destroy a city block or more."

"Danny, you're delusional, son. That can't be possible for a human. It's hardly possible for a ghost," Jack said, his voice stern.

Danny sighed, becoming angry wouldn't help them believe what he said. "It is for me. Everything you ever saw Danny Phantom do was me. I skipped class to fight off the ghosts attacking school. I lost sleep fighting the ghosts attacking at night. I fought ghosts on a camping trip with the class. I've broken out of ghost jail a time or two. And…" Danny hesitated.

"There's more?" Maddie asked, sensing more nervousness from her son.

"Yes… When I took the Ecto-Suit to defeat the Ghost King… I took his crown away from him…," Danny began. "I didn't even know about this until yesterday but, when I did that, I became heir to the Throne of the Ghost Zone. On my 21st birthday I will be crowned King of the Ghost Zone."

Silence filled the room again. Punctuated by the sound of cars driving down the road, horns honking and people talking. Normal people going about their normal lives outside this not normal household and its inhabitance.

Suddenly Jack Fenton burst out laughing. His hands on his belly trying and failing to control his laughter. Danny and Sam, Jazz and Tucker were taken aback by this sudden change in attitude. Glancing worriedly at one another, they didn't know whether this was a good development or a bad development.

Even Maddie was giving Jack an odd look.

Finally, when Jack calmed down enough to speak, he addressed Danny. "That was some joke, Danny-boy! You almost had me convinced about you being a ghost! What ever gave you the idea for such a detailed story! Friendly ghosts? King of the Ghost Zone! Hah! Priceless," Jack chuckled, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

"A joke?" Maddie asked. Looking from Jack to the kids. "This was all a joke? How could you do that!"

But it was Team Phantom that was speechless now. Staring at the two in utter disbelief. Maddie gazed angrily at them, believing the whole story to be a joke.

"Really, I thought we'd taught you better than that. I'm surprised at you Jazz," Maddie scolded her daughter.

"J-joke?" Jazz gapped. "What! No! Mom, Dad, this is not a joke! Everything Danny has told you, that we have told you is true. Danny… he is a 'halfa'. Even you heard the other Ghost Zone ghosts call Danny Phantom 'halfa' in the past and I know you wondered what it meant," Jazz said, nodding to Danny when she mentioned Phantom. "It's a slang term the other full ghosts created for them. 'Half-a-human-half-a-ghost'. The 'halfa'."

Danny nodded, focusing his attention back on his mom and dad who had gone quiet once again. Jack looked a bit deflated.

"It's why Skulker hunted me in the first place. I was unique, and he wanted me in his collection of rare stuff. Or skinned alive with my pelt at the foot of his bed…" Danny explained. Mumbling to himself, "Thank goodness he's almost given that up."

"Kids, come on, just give it up," Jack said. "This isn't funny anymore."

"I never said it was funny, Dad," Danny answered. "But I can't give it up until you believe what I'm telling you. Did you never wonder how or why Phantom turned up where ever we went? The road trips we took, the vacations, the vacations-turned-kidnappings? Why was Phantom there in the first place? I know I gave some ridicules excuse for showing up, but wasn't it odd to you that I only ever seemed to follow our family around the country?"

"Danny. I want you to stop this nonsense right this second. You are a responsible adult, you have a child on the way, there is no reason for you to be acting so… so childish!" Maddie said, standing up from the couch. "I always worried growing up around so much ghost activity might do some minimal damage to you both, you four, either physically or mentally but I had no idea it might go this far. For you to actively believe that you are a ghost, Danny. And for you three to believe and encourage him! What were you thinking!"

Maddie started walking from the room with purpose in her stop.

"What? Where are you going mom?" Jazz asked.

"To the lab, you obviously don't want to have a nice family evening like you offered so why should I hang around here with you all shouting about Danny being a ghost?" Maddie said, coldly.

Her feet had just entered the kitchen when Danny spoke.

"Then why has every one of your ghost hunting equipment worked on me or tracked me down as a ghost. Why did every single invention you two made, target me as a being made from ectoplasm?" Danny said coldly. Surely this piece of evidence, one that they knew all too well themselves, would make them believe, give them reason to think Danny wasn't crazy or just making a bad joke.

Jack stared at Danny in awe, like a lightbulb went off. Maddie slowly turned around, her look calculating in a way. Danny hoped beyond hope that this was it. This was when they finally accepted that he was a half-ghost. "Before my accident in the lab, your equipment never picked up on me, on anything at all. Because there were no ghosts in the area at the time. But after I turned on the Ghost Portal and opened the pathway for the ghosts to come out, your equipment began to work. I – as Phantom – was the first one to get the Fenton Thermos to capture a ghost by channeling my own ecto-energy into it. After that day in the lab every piece of your equipment targeted me. The Boo-merang specifically would only ever target me. Sam and Tucker, even Jazz, used it a time or two to track me down when I was kidnapped by a ghost or lost or who knows what else, and it worked every time. All of your equipment was able to pick up on my underlying ecto-energy when I was in my human form," Danny explained, his parents gazing at him in shock. Occasionally glancing at each other but for the most part they kept their eyes on Danny. "Don't you see? Everything that I am saying makes sense when you put all the pieces together."

Jack and Maddie exchanged looks again. Whatever passed between them, Danny knew it wasn't good.

"Danny, everything you're saying… you can't believe it would be easy for us to accept just… out of the blue like this…" Maddie began.

"Yeah, Danny-boy… you're asking us to change how we've seen ghosts since collage, even before that… We are going to need a bit more… scientific proof. Would you mind, it's up to you but, would you mind if we maybe ran a few tests… just to check a few things," Jack said, turning back to Team Phantom.

"Tests?" Danny asked, hollowly. Something wasn't right. Never in any of the past times his parents found out, had they reacted like this. "What kind of tests?"

"Just a few routine blood tests, a MRI and a few x-rays would suffice. We just need-" But Danny cut her off.

"You just need an excuse to get me down to the lab where you can trap me and experiment on me, to try and get whatever ghost is overshadowing me out, or possible who knows what other idea you two think is going on here," Danny growled, standing up.

"What?! Danny-boy, we don't think that!" Jack said, shocked.

"No? Then why have you been eyeing where you keep the ecto-weapons stashed in this room? You've been measuring the distance between me and Sam, Tucker and Jazz to see if I'm too close to them to shoot at," Danny growled. "Well I'd like to inform you that none of what YOU are thinking is true and EVERYTHING WE have told you IS. But I guess seeing is believing, isn't it?"

Jack and Maddie gasped as Danny's clenched fists lit up with green ecto-energy, right along with his eyes that flashed from sky blue to radioactive green. The two ghost hunters jumped into action. Jack pulling out an ecto-gun from his belt while Maddie grabbed a larger scale gun from the kitchen stash and aimed it at Danny. The sound of the weapons warming up filled the air.

"Sam, Jazz, Tucker! Get away from it!" Maddie shouted, taking aim at Danny's head.

But instead of them running for cover, the three stood in their way, blocking their aim of Danny, with Sam at the front.

Jack and Maddie gasped at them all. "I said get back! That's not Danny!" But they didn't move. The weapons still sung but everyone stood their ground.

"No. Mom, Dad. Danny is not overshadowed. He is not possessed, and he is not under mind control. There is nothing wrong with Danny at all," Jazz said, stepping in front of Sam even though the black-haired woman glared at her.

Jack stilled as he looked around the room. "Why haven't any of the defense systems gone off?"

"I turned them off when I got here," Jazz said. "I knew, we all knew, Danny came here tonight to tell you this truth about himself. I turned them off so when it came time for him to show you his powers, the house wouldn't attack him. His ecto-signature has been in the house's security system since he was fifteen so that it knew not to attack him if he needed to change into a ghost while he was here. Which has happened on more than one occasion."

"What?! You knew your brother was being controlled and you lowered our defenses?!" Maddie cried.

"I know Danny is not being controlled, Mom," Jazz corrected her.

"Jazz," Danny called her name, drawing his parents' attention back to him. From his spot behind his friend, wife and sister, Danny locked eyes with his Mom. "She won't believe you," he said, the sadness in his voice was evident. Slowly he rose from the ground and floated between his two high school friends to stand beside his sister. "I'll change. But if it doesn't work… I'll leave. Would you make sure Sam get's home safe if I can't take her with me?"

"Of course, little brother," Jazz said quietly.

"Jazz! That is not your little brother!"

"Yes, he is!"

"Give it up, sis," Danny signed, and for the first time in his life he spoke the words for his transformation in front of his parents. "I'm going ghost."

A blue-white ring burst to life around his waist, blinding his mother and father. His friends were well used to the lightshow, but they shielded their eyes anyway. Jack and Maddie watched for the first time as the ring split apart and traveled over their son's body. Where is split apart, his clothing changed to match that of the one ghost they tried so hard to capture for so many years. A black and white suit, with glowing green eyes and whiter-than-snow hair. Danny Phantom stood in their living room. His body gave off an air of power, of determination, and of protection. They hadn't seen Phantom in many years since the ghosts of their town started showing up less. They could see he had grown up in those years, matching the age their son was now. His chest was more defined. The line of his jaw was sharper, and his hair had changed just a bit, exactly like how Danny had changed over his later high school and college years.

Danny gazed at his parents, believing at any moment that he would have to place up a shield to protect himself, Jazz, Sam and Tucker from any ecto-ray his parents shot at him, but none came. He took the opportunity to speak instead.

"Mom, Dad, I wanted to tell you who I was and what had happened to me when I turned on the Fenton Ghost Portal for the first time six years ago. One of you had placed the ON/OFF switch inside the portal itself and it was left in the OFF position when you plugged it in. When I went inside, I accidentally hit the ON switch with it still plugged in, so it began to start up. I was hit with unmeasurable amounts of ecto energy as well as electricity. The electricity alone should have killed me, fried my body and left me unrecognizable. However, the ecto-energy, the power that gives the dead life, flowed into my body at the same time. It latched onto my DNA, fusing together with it to the point where the two became indistinguishable from each other. The ecto-energy began healing my body from the electrical burns almost at once. But the pain was excruciating. I can't describe it in any words I know. Somehow, I was still standing though this experience and as the ectoplasm finished healing my body, it began simply to gather up inside of me. I changed for the first time inside the ghost portal itself. Once that happened, I had the strength to stager out of the portal. Sam and Tucker were there to catch me when I lost my balance and collapsed."

"When I woke up, I still looked like this. I'm in what I call my 'ghost mode' or 'ghost form'. At first, I couldn't control the change, I couldn't control my powers. I would start sinking through the floor at school or turning my hand intangible and dropping whatever I was holding. For the first month I struggled with the powers, wondering if I should tell you what really happened, and what had happened to me because of it. But after I took down the Lunch Lady ghost at school, I decided I would learn about these powers. I would learn to control and master them. I would help in any way I could. Catching ghosts became my responsibility, since it was my fault the portal opened to let them out. Hence the skipping school and losing sleep bit."

"I was hoping to one day tell you all this, and that you would be proud of everything I had accomplished. Proud of all the people I had saved. But soon it just became easier to not tell you, to live in the lie I had created around my secret. I might have continued lying to you until Clockwork showed up yesterday and told me I was inheriting the Crown and would become the Ghost Zone's King."

"That wouldn't be so bad except for the fact… that now I… I must live in the Ghost Zone… I can't live here on the Living Plane without causing harm to myself. And if I don't take the Crown… the Ghost Zone will begin draining every ghost of their energy to stay in existence until no ghosts are left. Half-ghosts included. Which Clockwork informed me and Sam, might include the child. I can't refuse the Crown without the possibility that I and my child will both end up dead because of it."

"I must take the Crown. I must go to the Ghost Zone. I'm not sure if I can come back to visit or stay a day. I do know I can't ever return to my job or to my schooling. But I couldn't leave without telling you both the truth about these last six years. The truth about me and what happened that day in the lab. I'm sorry I kept this from you for so long. I'm sorry I went into the Ghost Portal when you told me not to mess with your inventions. But I'm not sorry of the man I've become because of it. I'm strong. I can protect those I love. And I like to think I'm a better person then I would have grown up to be if I had stayed fully human. So, I'm sorry, Mom and Dad, for the pain I've caused you with my lies."

Danny ended his speech with sincerity, his eyes locked on his parents who still stood with guns raised and singing, waiting to shoot at him at a moments notice. At his mention of calling them both 'mom and Dad' their eyes hardened. Maddie slowly lowered her gun, Jack did as well. But Jack was the first one to speak.

"I don't know how you've hidden this change from us for so long, Phantom, or how you acted like our son so well that we didn't suspect a thing but hear this. Never, _never_ call us 'Dad and Mom' again. You are not our son. Our son died in that ghost portal when he was fourteen. Whatever scum you are, whatever hole you crawled out of to enter his body, I don't even care. But we can't let you go on living in it, making people think you are our boy. How you were able to procreate with Sam I don't even know, but that is no grandchild of ours. Whatever that thing is born to be will be just as vial a creature as you," Jack's voice held a level of venom Danny had never heard before. Danny glanced at his mom to see if she would contradict her husband, to try and reassure him that he was indeed their son, but the look on her face said it all. She agreed with her husband 100%. Slowly she raised her gun back up and aimed it at Danny.

"Mom-" Danny started but her only response was to pull the trigger. The gun shot out it's blast so fast Danny barely had time to erect a shield around the four of them. The blast was absorbed into the shield rather than being repelled. The smoke cleared to show Jack and Maddie still holding their guns ready. Danny felt the tears running down his face.

"Very well… Madeline, Jack, this is goodbye. I won't bother you ever again," Danny said, his voice rough as he tried to hold back his emotions. "Guys, if you want to hold on to me?" he said without taking his eyes off the Dr.'s Fenton and Fenton. Sam grasped his right hand while Jazz held his left. When he felt Tucker place a hand on his shoulder, he gathered his energy around them all and without another word, took them away from Fenton Works and to his own home within a moments time. As he let his energy dissipate and his ghost form fell away, Danny fell to his knees, crying.

 ** _Posted 11/25/18_**

Well about sixteen hours a writing later you finally get the ending to this chapter, hope it satisfied your dreams! Please feel free to leave a review, they keep me smiling!

(If for any reason I've remembered nicknames wrong or put words in Jacks mouth that sound more like the Guys in White, I am sorry, I find it is best for me not to go looking for the correct answer in the show… you would find me five hours later on a completely different subject and without the answer I went looking for…)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	14. Chapter 14: Questions and Accusations

_**Chapter Fourteen: Questions and Accusations**_

 _Friday, June 6th, 1998_

The group of five teens stumbled back up the stairs to the front door of Fenton Works. They had helped clean up the schoolyard after Technus's attack and now they were exhausted. Jazz had offered to order pizza and they all agreed that food would be welcomed. They washed up while they waited for the delivery driver to arrive and not fifteen minutes later, they were all sitting around the diner table eating pizza just like the night before.

"Sorry we couldn't keep looking for your family, Lilly," Jazz apologized.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure we will find them tomorrow, how big can this town be, anyway?" Abbi commented.

"There are still a few neighborhoods to look through and then there is the downtown scene too. Since you don't know where they might be, we will have to check them all," Jazz explained.

Abbi nodded, her face going red. "You really don't have to do all this, I'm sure I could find them on my own if you let me try."

"Nonsense, a stranger running around a ghost infested town is no laughing matter, we will help, right guys?" Jazz askes, addressing the three other teens at the table.

They all agreed in varying stages of compliance, Sam's being the least compassionate about it.

"See, now we can just get to bed early, I'm dead on my feet after the schoolyard. I claim first for the shower if you two don't mind."

When neither Danny nor Abbi protested, Jazz rose from the table and set her plate in the sink. "I won't be long, then Abbi can get a shower in. Be back soon," Jazz replied, leaving the four teens to finish their meal.

Abbi kept her gaze on her pizza for a while after that, listening to the sounds of the other teens eating. But she didn't get peace and quiet for long.

"So," Sam began. "Is there actually a family in this town looking for you or have you made that all up?"

Abbi's head shot up, her eyes locking with Sam's.

"W-what?"

"Cuz I don't believe there is anyone looking for you in this town. Don't you go forgetting that _we_ were there when you popped out of the sky. Or that we saw your ghost abilities. How do we know you aren't just some new ghost who hasn't realized your dead yet?"

At this comment Danny's palm met his forehead. "Really Sam? You think Lilly is a ghost?"

"You saw everything I did! It's a possibility. She might even be possessed."

"Her eyes aren't red though," Tucker offered, gazing intently at Abbi's eyes.

"Possessed? Ew!" Abbi shivered in discussed. That was still such a nasty thought to her.

"But you do have ghost powers! You attacked Phantom! For no reason, might I add!"

"I gave you my reasons," Abbi growled, a hard glare focused on Sam. _And you're part of them._ The look in Abbi's eyes caused Sam to stop her questioning. The anger there was focused at Sam now, not at the absent Phantom, but at Sam.

"Lilly," Danny began, "How about you tell us what it was Phantom did to upset you so much."

Abbi looked back at her plate. "I can't."

"Then tell us about your powers," Danny suggested.

"I don't know anything about them…" Abbi answered with the truth before she caught herself. "They just showed up yesterday morning."

"Wait… yesterday morning?" Tucker asked. "I thought you said they showed up after the GIW had you…"

Abbi froze… "Um… right, I… I got away from them… recently…?" _I'm doomed…_

"So," Sam started out, angrily, "You're saying that you just escaped the GIW two days ago – not the couple of weeks ago you said yesterday – after who knows how long they experimented on you and your family decided to still go on a family trip the next morning, then they lose you again and don't bother to try and find you? Even my lame parents would be contacting the police and media trying to find me after something like _that._ So why don't you cut the crap and tell us what is really going on and what you're after here?"

Sam had stood up during her rant, her hands on the table, glaring daggers at Abbi.

"Um… I… Well…" _What do I say?!_

"The GIW never had you, did they?" Sam demanded.

"Um… You see…."

"Did they? Lilly, or is that even your name?"

Abbi's mouth snapped shot. She glanced quickly at Danny before meeting Sam's gaze again. "Well…"

"Okay Sam, I think we know the answer to both those questions," Danny replied, standing up and placing a hand on Sam's shoulder.

"But!"

"She wasn't experimented on, and for that I am glad," Danny said, gazing at the girl who reminded him so much of Dani. "If she doesn't want to tell us her real name just yet, that's okay. We are the strangers to her Sam, just as much as she is to us."

Danny turned his full attention to Lilly, but the girl looked away from him, unable to meet his eyes.

"But Danny! She is hiding something! That is clearly obvious! How can you trust her?!" Sam demanded.

"I didn't say I trusted her, Sam," Danny said quietly.

Lilly heard this, and her gaze shot back to Danny, looking hurt at his comment. Before either of the two could respond, the girl spoke up, her eyes back on her plate.

"I'm sorry I can't tell you anything. I'm sorry you don't think you can trust me. I'll leave if you want me to. You don't have to help me anymore," Lilly said.

"Good!" Sam shouted.

"Sam! We can't just kick her out, Jazz would never allow it without proof she made it to her family," Danny reasoned before turning to Lilly. "And we aren't kicking you out. While you have attacked Phantom, you haven't done anything to us."

"Danny!" Sam shouted, shocked at his comment.

"You can stay here until we figure something out," Danny continued, ignoring Sam's outburst.

"You're going to let her stay! What if she-"

"You think I can't take care of myself?" Danny asked, turning to Sam, one eyebrow raised, conveying without words what he was really asking.

"Fine! But if she turns out to be the next villain in this town, it's all on your head," Sam shouted. She turned from the table and grabbed her bag. "I'm out!" she said, stomping from the room and slamming the front door behind her.

Lilly looked hurt and confused at Sam's shouts, she gazed back at the two boys, hoping one of them would explain to her what just happened.

"Don't worry about her, she's just an over protective lov-"

But whatever she was Lilly wouldn't know. Danny's elbow to Tuckers ribs saw to that.

Not long after that Tucker left, with much less of a threat to Lilly's life than Sam's, agreeing to see them both in the morning.

"They don't like me…" Lilly said quietly. It was just her and Danny at the table now, they could hear the shower running upstairs and Lilly knew Jazz would be at least a little while. This was the first real time she was alone with the boy that would become her father. She looked from the doorway back to Danny, asking an unspoken question, and hoping he would answer it.

"They just worry…" Danny said, trying to not seem evasive about it. "Bad things happen in this town. And with my parents being the town ghost hunters, a lot of it happens to me."

Lilly looked on, confused. "How so?"

"Well… not many people at school think it's cool to be the son of ghost hunters, even if they now know ghosts are real. So, I get bullied a lot about my parents and what not. I've been attacked by ghosts before. More than once. So has my sister and Sam and Tucker, multiple times. I can name a few times too many that people we once thought to be a non-threat turned out to be ghosts in disguise and ended up in dangerous situations because of them."

"Really?" Lilly asked, "How is that?"

"Well this one time our school hired a counselor to help the student body cope with the ghost attacks," Danny explained. "But instead she was making the whole school miserable by bringing up what the student saw as their flaws and failures. Turns out she was a ghost and was feeding off our misery to make herself look younger. She took a particular liking to me…" he paused. "That was a bad week for me…"

"I'm sorry…" Lilly said, not knowing what else to say.

"Thanks… thankfully Phantom figured out what the ghost was doing and was able to capture the ghost and save my sister from… well… a very bad accident."

Lilly's eyes widened quickly, "You mean…"

"Yeah… Jazz would have died if it wasn't for Phantom's quick actions that day…" Danny explained. "It still bothers me if I think about it too much."

Abbi gazed at her teenaged father in shock. It was no wonder the four of them thought so highly of Phantom if he had saved their lives before. Abbi had just seen him save the school kids not four hours ago. And from the stories Jazz told her, he keeps the town safe even in the middle of the night.

"Lilly?" Danny asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

"Y-yeah?"

"I know you weren't experimented on by the GIW now, so… I have to ask… please be honest, does the name… Plasmius mean anything to you?" Danny asked, his eyes locked on Abbi.

Confusion swept over her face. "Plas-what?"

"Plasmius, do you know that name from anywhere at all?"

"Um, no… should I?" Abbi asked, it sounded an awful lot like it would be a ghost's name. 'Plasm' like ecto _plasm_. "Is… is that another ghost?"

But Danny didn't answer the question.

"What about Masters? Or Vlad?"

"Vlad Masters?" she asked in surprise, that name she did know. "The billionaire? He runs a tech company… right?" _Did he run his company twenty years ago?_

"Um, yeah, him. Have you ever met him?" Danny asked.

"No, why?" Abbi asked. _Well, not yet technically…_

"Oh, um, no, no reason," Danny replied, looking a little relieved for reasons Abbi couldn't explain.

"Danny? Lilly? Did Sam and Tucker leave already?" Jazz's voice floated down from the top of the landing.

"A little while ago, yeah," Danny shouted back.

"Really? It's a bit early for them to leave," she thought aloud, "Well the shower is open for whoever wants to use it first."

"You go ahead, Lilly, I'll just clean up down here," Danny said, standing up and grabbing the discarded plates and napkins from the table.

"Oh, okay, yeah," Abbi stood up and headed for the living room and the stairs beyond that. But she paused at the doorway. "Hey, Da- Danny?"

"Yeah?" he turned to look at her.

"I'm sorry you don't think you can trust me…" Abbi started, her gaze on the floor. "I would tell you what I could if I could but, what I'm not telling you isn't dangerous or anything, it's just… private, you know? I don't mean any of you any harm."

Danny gazed at her, blinking. "Oh, okay Lilly," he replied. "Thanks."

She nodded without looking up at him before turning and leaving the room.

Leaving Danny more confused than before her comment.

 _ **DP DP DP**_

 _S_ _unday, June 8_ _th_ _, 1998_

"Really guys, I just want to explore the town on my own today. Thanks for all the help these last two days but… I need to just wander around… if that's okay?" Abbi stood at the doorway to Fenton Works facing Jazz and Danny who had just gotten out of bed in the early afternoon hours.

"Are you sure, Lilly?" Jazz asked. "You're still new to this town, it's easy to get lost and what if there is a ghost attack? I don't want you getting hurt…"

"I know my way around after all the walking we've done now, I'm good with remembering where I am, well, after having been there before, at least. Besides, I can always call you if I get lost, which is unlikely," Abbi replied, holding up the pay-as-you-go phone they had gotten her the day before. It was a silly little flip phone, but it worked for what they needed. It's not like they had Wi-Fi capable phones with built in google maps just yet.

"Well," Jazz didn't look too convinced.

"I'll check in every few hours of that helps?" Abbi offered, really wanting a day to walk the town she grew up in without their little team following her around. She couldn't truly go where she wanted with them. And sure, the places she wanted to visit might not even be built yet, but she still wanted to go check them out.

And maybe… just maybe… she might run into Phantom if they weren't around…

Maybe…

"Well, okay," Jazz finally agreed, reluctantly. "But check in every two hours, okay? And here, take some money for lunch…" Jazz fished out a twenty from her purse. "If you find anyone you know, let us know, kay?"

"I will, thanks Jazz," Abbi said, taking the money, "I'll pay you back for this, really," Abbi smiled before opening the door. "I'll be back before it's dark," she shouted back at them before closing the door behind her.

"You'll keep an eye on her Danny?" Jazz asked as a blue-white light flashed behind her.

"You bet, see you later Jazz," Phantom replied, floating up towards the ceiling. "And mind not telling Sam where I went? I'd rather live to finish my afterlife."

With a laugh Phantom vanished though the ceiling and Jazz was left shaking her head at his lame joke. "That's still not funny, Danny."

 ** _Posted 12/15/18_**

I'm not sure how much I like this chapter… It's been fighting my brain for a few weeks, having had part of it written over two months ago… I ended up scrapping what I had written and starting over.

Hope you enjoy it. Flip phones probably didn't exist in 1998 but oh well, they had them in the TV show, so I'll stick with that tech for the story.

Let me know what you thought!

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	15. Chapter 15: A Random Meeting

_**Chapter Fifteen: A Random Meeting**_

 _Sunday, June 8_ _th_ _, 1998_

Abbi wandered around the town for the better part of the morning, walking by shops and businesses. She passed the school and a few houses she knew her schoolmates would one day live in. She wandered into a grocery store, taking note of the old brand logos, some she didn't recognize, and some she did. Past the movie theater that had been mentioned a few days previous. A large sign announcing it's reopening covered the front windows with old-to-her movie posters, one in particular caught her eye…

"Really? Mulan isn't even out yet?" She murmured, gazing at the poster for a movie she couldn't remember even seeing for the first time. Her mom might not be a 'Disney princess fangirl' but that hadn't stopped Aunt Jazz from making sure she'd seen each and every princess movie there was. "Don't, don't, don't," Abbi murmured, but it was too late… ' _Honor to us all_ ' was already stuck in her head. Groaning she trudged on, mumbling the words under her breath as she passed a few more shops before reaching a neighborhood with large two-story houses. "These look new…" she commented about the houses she had never thought of as 'new'.

It was well past noon, and a few check-in's with Jazz later, that she wandered into what would one day become her own neighborhood. For now, it was just a road leading out of the city, little gravel roads branched off from time to time and she took the one she was sure would eventually be paved and home to large houses with big yards and fancy cars in the driveways.

She stopped a few hundred yards down the road and gazed up at the only thing she recognized along the entire street. The old oak tree she had seen not three mornings earlier stood twenty years younger beside the road, one limb stretching out over the road as far as it could go. Somehow, she had never imagined the tree as a young tree before. To her it was always an old tree, it had to have appeared there one day, old and withered like she knew. Obviously, that wasn't the case, and she knew it, but it was still odd to see the towering oak as a less towering, rather youthful tree that still had space to grow. A bird's nest was hidden high in the branches and what she thought might be a squirrel's nest also hid among the higher limbs when she drew closer to the truck of the tree.

Turning her back to the tree she tried to recognize the scene in front of her, a sight she had grownup with, but she couldn't see it. Perhaps if she were two stories up it would be easier to picture her side yard among the gravel and weeds, but she wasn't confident about that.

"Now what do I do?" she sighed, and plopped down on the ground beside the tree, her back leaning back against the trunk. A bird took flight from the tree, twittering as it fled, but Abbi took little notice of it. Sighing again, Abbi pulled out the flip phone and opened it up. She browsed the phone's choices, it had two games, a car chasing game, which was basically click left or right to avoid cars you pass. And Tetras, a game she had never been very fond of. Besides that, all the phone was good for was making a call and telling you the time, which was half past one. "Dumb old flip phone," she grumbled, and set it beside her in the grass. Any and all distractions from her situation extinguished. "I'm stuck here with no idea how to get home, and no guarantee it's even possible." _What do I do if I never get back? How do I explain to any of them that I have no family… What happens if I live here until my parents get married and then they have me? Will something happen to me or to baby me if I'm still here? What if me being here changes something so drastically that the future I know… won't come to be…?_

The sky was a clear robin egg blue. Clouds drifted here and there and there was a refreshing breeze that shook the leaves of the tree above her.

 _And Danny keeps asking me about these so-called powers…_ she groaned, gazing down at her hands. _I don't even know how to use them. I don't know how I made them do what they did that day either!_ She glared at her hand in anger. Clenching her fist, she focused on it as hard as she could. It was far more difficult then she remembered it being to call up the glowing green energy. The little she was able to produce flickered feebly in her hand. How she had ever made a rope out of it, she wasn't sure.

"Come on… do something!" she called to it, glaring at the bobbling flame-like substance.

"That's a ghost ray, other than shooting it at another ghost, it doesn't do anything."

Abbi jumped to her feet at the sudden talking from above her. Unfortunately, that all she found she could do, because her feet weren't touching the ground anymore and she couldn't figure out how to keep herself upright.

Phantom watched as the black-haired girl flipped and bobbed around, crying out in 'woooh's and 'ahhhh's as she tried to right herself.

"Wwwoooohhh, sstoooopppp," she cried, flapping her arms like a bird with no success. The ghost ray had dissipated from her hand and so Phantom allowed himself to float down to Lilly's level and grab her hand. Having a point of stability, Lilly got her feet under her and wobbled like a toddler on ice skates. "Wwoooo!" she cried again, and grabbed Phantoms hand with her other hand, bringing her shaking body to a relative stop. Fear and shock glowed in Lilly's eyes that had changed from dark blue to radioactive green. As they focused on Phantom some of the fear vanishes to be replaced by anger. "You!" she shouted. "Get-Get away from me!"

She pushed away from him, but this only brought back her fledgling bird impersonation. When Phantom grabbed hold of her hand the second time, she did not push him away, but her glare remained. "Get me down!" Phantom held in a laugh as he looked her in the eye.

"You have to get yourself down. You are making yourself levitate on your own," Phantom explained. "Just think about going down, calm down and let gravity hold you again."

The second Phantom said this, Lilly lost her control over her levitation, her eyes returned to blue and she dropped down like a lead weight. A scream left her lips as Phantom tightened his grip on her hand and allowed his own levitation to surround the girl. Then he lowered them both to the ground. Once she was on her feet, he backed some feet away from her bobbing in the air like a balloon at eye-level.

"Um… hi," he said, raising a hand in a wave.

Lilly glared at him once she got her bareings again. "What are you doing here?" she asked, angrily.

"Patrolling," Phantom answered, his story already prepared. "I patrol the city and stuff looking for ghosts that try to cause trouble. I saw you walking out here and… well… our first meeting wasn't the greatest. So… I thought I'd try again."

Lilly narrowed her eyes at him. "Why should I believe you?"

Phantom only shrugged. "That's up to you, so… who are you, anyway? You seem to know me… but I've never seen you around before."

"I don't have any reason to talk to you," Lilly shouted as she turned and started walking away.

"No? So, calling me a 'rotten lowlife scum' was a mistake?" he asked, hoping to get some answers out of her even if it was anger that revealed them.

"No, you earned that name," she grumbled.

"How so?" he asked. "If it's another 'you ruined my life' speech at least let me know what you think I did."

"So you've ruined lives before?"

"What?! No! Valery just… thinks some things are my fault when they aren't. You see, Cujo isn't mine… you know what, never mind. Not important here," Phantom rambled, floating along beside Lilly with a few well-chosen feet between them. "So… going to tell me your name?"

The glare he was sent would send lesser ghosts running.

"Are you from the Zone? I've never seen you in there before? Do you know Frostbite or Clockwork?" he asked, trying for any kind of reaction. "Walker maybe?"

"Who?" she asked, her look changing to one of bewilderment.

"Those are some ghosts from the Zone, a few of my friends and not so friendly acquittances," Phantom explained.

"The Zone? The Ghost Zone? Why would I have ever been there? I'm alive, not some dead/ghost/creature/thing," Lilly bit back.

"Oh? So the floating and Ecto Ray were a trick of the light?" he asked, smiling.

"No… I don't… I mean…" she sighed. "I guess I have a small idea, or more of a theory, of where they came from… but I'm not so sure it's, I mean I don't know how… accurate it might be…" Lilly became very quiet after that.

"Care to share with the rest of us ghosts?" Phantom teased.

"I'm not a ghost!" Lilly shouted. "And no! I'm not sharing!" she crossed her arms and turned away from Phantom making him chuckle.

He glided over to float in front of her, his legs crossed. "But you do seem to have ghost powers. AAAAND no idea how to use them."

His words brought her to a stop. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ghost powers can be dangerous," Phantom began. "I should know, I spend most of my afterlife dodging different attacks that range from missiles to music waves. I've even fought off a giant monster made entirely of meat before."

Lilly's eyes widened. "That sounds so gross."

"It simply a day-in-the-life, well afterlife, of-Danny-Phantom," he shrugged.

"You're first name's Danny?" Lilly murmured, eyeing the ghost carefully.

"Yes? Is that a problem?" he asked, confused. Lilly just blinked at him, lost in thought about something he would probably never know.

"So… you… remember who you were… when you were alive?" she asked.

Phantom blinked. "Well, yeah. I haven't been a ghost that long, 'course I remember who I was." When Lilly only seemed to stare at him in shock for a while too long, he decided to get back on more important matters. After all, who knows how long it would take her to return to the speaking world without a little push. "I believe we were talking about _you_ and not me. Ghost powers in a living body, remember?"

After her eyes focused back on his face, Lilly glared at him. "What of it, nothing I can do about it," she said.

"No, but you can learn to control them now that they are here," Phantom offered. "Unless you want more instances of floating off the earth with no way down, in a town full of ghosts and people who hunt ghosts, and experiment on ghosts. It's not something I'd recommend."

"What? Are you offering to tell me how to control them? How do you know I won't just attack you the first chance I get?" Lilly asked, some bitterness in her voice.

Once again, Phantom only shrugged. "So, what if you do? A few ghost lessons over months of practice. You only got the jump on me last time cuz I didn't expect an attack like that from a supposed average human."

"Months? Just how long ago-"

"I'm a ghost, I don't count the days, let's just leave it at 'months', 'kay?" he asked, floating to a standing position.

"But-"

"I'm letting you keep your secrets, why should I tell you mine?" that shut her up fast.

"Fine… if you want to help me, fine. No idea why you want to help me, thought," Lilly said.

"Let's just say you remind me of a friend," Phantom explained. "So, you got time for a lesson or are you late for a hot date?" he asked, his eyes were shining with mischief, finding something funny that she couldn't figure out.

"A hot date? What? Why on earth-"

Suddenly the flip phone, that lay forgotten by the oak tree, started ringing loudly.

"Jazz!" Lilly shouted, turning she raced back to the phone. Flipping it open she saw the time read twenty-five past two. She'd missed her check in with Jazz by nearly half an hour. Selecting the little glowing green phone button, she held the receiver to her ear. "Hi, Jazz, sorry, I didn't notice what time it was getting to be," she said, not giving her teenage aunt a chance to freak out and shout at her.

"I've been worried sick! When you didn't check in, I checked the news for any ghost attacks but there weren't any so then I was worried some living person had taken you! I shouldn't have let you go out alone! It was a dumb idea in the first place. Where are you, I'll come pick you up and we can search together," Jazz exclaimed, hardly pausing to take a breath.

"Relax Jazz, I'm fine, I was just wandering around and lost track of the time. I'm perfectly fine," Lilly said, hoping to calm her teenage aunt's fears.

"When I couldn't get ahold of you and when Da-" Jazz cut herself off. "But your'e okay, that's what matters. No ghosts are bothering you? And no Phantom sightings?"

Lilly paused at that, "Why would I have seen Phantom?"

"No-no reason. It's just if he's around it normally means other ghosts are," Jazz rushed. "You're really okay? You haven't gotten lost or anything, have you?"

"No, Jazz, I've known exactly where I am all day," Lilly replied. "And I know the way back too. Can I go? I want to check some more places before heading back."

"Just… just don't forget to check in again, okay? And be home by five, well… I mean… back by five, sorry," Jazz murmured, realizing her mistake.

Lilly gave a half-hearted laugh, "Right, okay, bye Jazz."

The call ended, and Lilly looked up to see Phantom floating beside her. She jumped back when she realized just how close he was. "Hey! Don't do that! Were you eavesdropping on me!?"

"Wow, you got off easy, that girl can be a real drill sergeant when she wants to be," Phantom replied, smiling cheekily.

"And you would know this how?" Lilly asked.

"She's a Fenton, if I didn't keep track of them, I would be a poor excuse for a ghost hunter," Phantom said.

"But you're a ghost."

"So? A ghost can't hunt ghosts? That's what Skulker does every day to me," Phantom replied. "So, are we having a lesson now that the date is over or what?"

Lilly sighed. "Fine, let's have it. What's lesson one?"

"Sure, lesson one is! Oh, wait," Phantom paused.

"What now?"

"You never did tell me your name."

 ** _Posted 12/27/18_**

Two days late again, sorry.

Do you know how hard it is to edit a chapter with a cat sleeping on your stomach and her tail on the key pad? Bella really wanted to help I guess, but I made it thought, hope it didn't feel too rushed.

**Also! Mulan was released to theaters June 19th, 1998. I saw that when I looked for movies released in 1998 so I couldn't _not_ include it! And I feel that Jazz might just be that aunt who would make sure her niece saw all the princess moives. I know I will be for Quinn Lee! Especially since she loves music so much.

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	16. Chapter 16: Lesson Number One

_**Chapter Sixteen: Lesson Number One**_

 _Sunday, June 8_ _th_ _, 1998_

"WWwaaaaaa wwooooooooooow, Yeaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Those were the only words Lilly could make as Phantom attempted to teach her to fly. It wasn't going so bad, the girl just wasn't accustomed to having her feet off the ground.

"Stop thinking that your standing on something, your feet don't need to be flat, just let them hang, bend your knees a little and just think about staying still," Danny suggested, giving his arm over as a support for the hopeless girl.

"Eeeeeeeasy for yyyyyyyou to ssssayyyyyy!" Lilly wobbled in the air as she tried to make a sentence make sense. "You diiiidn't neeeeeed to learn how toooooo fly."

Danny laughed," Sure I did." Lilly really did look like a toddler on ice skates. "And how to charge my Ghost-ray, manage my tangibility and visibility too."

"You're what?" Lilly asked, looking at him with wide eyes, until she lost her balance again and wobbled to the left.

"You really should have let me explain about the different powers ghosts have before started on flying," Danny replied, steadying the girl again. "We aren't even two feet off the ground, falling won't hurt."

"Not for you, but it would hurt me," Lilly said, stabilizing herself for a few short seconds.

Danny's heart sank just a little. "Just because someone is dead doesn't mean they can't get hurt. You've been hanging out with the Fenton's, surely Jazz has told you about us."

Lilly focused on the ground and slowly sank back down to it. Releasing Danny's arm from her death grip, she heaved a big sigh, "That's a lot harder than I thought it would be."

Danny tilted his head as he gave her a long look. "Flying came easy for me, it was the tangibility that gave me the most trouble to figure out."

"Well lucky you Harry Potter, but not all of us are expert flyers," Lilly said, rolling her eyes.

"Who?" Danny asked, not recognizing the name.

Lilly froze for a second before responding, "No one important… never mind."

Danny was about to push further but Lilly pressed on. "So, what about this tangibility stuff? What is that all about?"

"Well, it's being able to pass through a solid object as if it's not there. Walls, cars, plants, you name it. All but ghost shields that is," Danny explained, Lilly nodding slowing in understanding.

"And how exactly do I accomplish that?"*

This sent Danny off on a long explanation of what it felt like to become intangible and returning to tangibility; what could happen once she started learning the skill; how to best avoid accidental moments of intangibility. Everything he could think of that might help the girl avoid what he had gone through in high school because of this eventually useful skill. Thirty minutes later, and after a call to Jazz telling her all was well, Danny allowed Lilly to try to become intangible for the first time.

Her task: Letting the rock she was holding fall through her hand to the ground.

"Remember what I told you about-"

But the rock had already thudded to the ground.

Danny and Lilly gazed at the rock for a few seconds, both rather shocked it had happened so fast. "Good, good, now make your hand tangible again and pick it up."

Lilly gazed at her hand for a second before reaching down and retrieving the rock. Holding it higher she dropped it through one hand while catching it with the other.

"My whole body can do this if I try?" she asked, making sure she wasn't crazy.

"Yeah, with practice," Danny said.

He watched as her eyes slid over to the tree she had sat beneath just an hour ago. Walking over to it she touched it with her palm. Then, to Danny's amazement, she slid her had inside, and walked through the tree. The trunk wasn't large enough to hide her entire body when she passed through it, but the feat was still impressive given it was only her third try at intangibility.

Danny watched as an excited Lilly turned back to the tree and ran through it a second time. She touched the truck, patting it happily, with every other pat her hand pass into and out of the tree. She turned back to Danny, smiling.

"This is easy!" she cried, picking up the rock she had discarded and started what appeared to be a game of catch, with herself…

Danny stared enviously at her sudden ability to control her tangibility. How easy would it have been to get though that first month if he had only been able to control that skill?

"Okay, fine, you can do Intangible with easy, now back to flying," to Danny's delight, Lilly groaned.

 _ **DP DP DP**_

They worked on flying for the next couple hours without much progress. Lilly managed to stay airborne but maintaining any sense of stillness, simply levitating in place, or sitting, as Danny had shown her, ended in disaster. Half the time she wobbled and swayed, the other half involved her falling to the earth in a heap of limbs.

After a particularly spectacular fall, Danny hovered over the girl some five feet above her with a wicked smile on his face. "Just wait till you have to try flying and being invisible at the same time." They hadn't even touched on the invisibility skill yet.

"You're evil," Lilly groaned, not getting back up.

"On this account, yes, yes I am," Danny agreed, he then reached his hand down to offer her some help to her feet. Lilly accepted his hand up, dusting off her shorts when she was back on her feet.

"Of all the skill that has to be hard, it's flying," she mumbled, looking up at the clouds and sun. "It would be so fun!" What kid didn't dream of flying every once in a while?

"Well, like it or not, it's going to be hard to learn for you, but don't worry about it too much, a couple weeks and you should have it down pretty well. Now come on, I'll have to fly you back to Fenton Work's if you except to get back before Miss Jazz has a heart attack again," Danny said, holding out his hand once again to the girl.

"What?! I'm not fly back with you! I'll walk!" Lilly cried, defiantly crossing her arms, one foot tapping on the ground. "I still don't like you!"

"What? Why not!?" Danny asked, dejected.

"You're still a rotten lowlife scum! I'm not going anywhere with you and that's final," she said, practically shouting.

"What did I ever do that made you think that when you didn't know ghosts existed until you came to Amity Park?" Danny asked, exasperated.

Her eyes narrowed. "How do you know I didn't know about ghosts until then?" she asked, skeptically.

This caused Danny to pause. "The- the Fenton boy told me, the other day… after… Technus attacked."

"What?!" Lilly gazed at him, shocked more then he thought she would be.

"Yeah, why?"

"You-… you know Danny?" she asked, carefully.

"Of course I know Danny, he and his friends turn up a lot at the ghost fights and we sometimes chat afterwards," Danny said, impressed with himself that he was being able to think this all up on the spot. This would also help if any more ghosts attacked. If Lilly ever asked where he'd been, he could just say he'd been talking with Phantom after the attack.

"You do?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"What… Are you two… friends?" she asked slowly.

"Yeah, you could say that we are. We run into each other often enough anyway," Danny replied.

"But… he's parents…"

"Hunt me? Yeah, they do. But he and Jazz know I'm only trying to help. Kids don't always follow their parent's beliefs after all. Just look at Sam."

Whatever Danny had said, it was the wrong thing. Anger flooded Lilly's eyes in an instant. She looked as if she wanted to punch him in the face. Her fists were clenched and green ecto energy was beginning to build up in them.

"You," Lilly ground out, her lips barely moving. "You stay away FROM SAM!" she shouted, and her fist did come up.

Slightly more prepared for this attack then the previous one, Danny leapt back from the glowing girl and into the air. He hung some thirty feet off the ground a good dozen yards in front of Lilly.

"You!" she shouted again. And to Danny's surprise, she rose of the ground and flew at him. It wasn't a steady flight, and not fast by any account, but she was airborne and not worrying about the ground. Danny narrowed his own eyes.

"Why?" he asked, backing away from the girl as she came closer to him. If her easy flight was only due to her not realizing it, he didn't want to get too far from her should she lose her grip on her flight and go plummeting to the ground.

"You STAY AWAY from her!" Lilly shouted again. She punched forward, throwing a ball of ecto energy at Danny who easily avoided the attack. He lowered his altitude a bit as she flew after him, shooting at him once more.

"You're not going to hit me, you know. Your attacks are a bit slow and I doubt they'd hurt that much even if they did land on me," he taunted, watching her flight carefully for any wobble or stumble. When he saw none for a few hundred yards he raised his altitude again. Lilly followed. Anger still in her eyes.

"I'll get you for what you did! You stay away from her!" Lilly shouted, confusing Danny quite a bit. They were talking about Sam, right? What had he done to her that would make Lilly so mad? He thought she didn't even like Sam. Sam defiantly didn't like Lilly very much.

"Anger never solved anything," Danny quoted, more to see what she would say or to reply.

"You Scumbag!" Lilly shouted, another ecto blast came at Danny.

"Oh, so now I'm a scumbag? After helping you learn to fly for two hours? Not that it helped much," he said, but Lilly didn't seem to get what he was implying.

"I'll never forgive you!"

"Forgive me? For teaching you to fly? Or for whatever it was I did to Sam?" Danny asked, rising higher still.

"You leave her be! She wants nothing to do with you!" Lilly shouted.

As much as Danny wanted to know what Lilly meant or what Sam maybe told her, if this was really the case, he didn't want Lilly to get any higher off the ground then she already was and if they continued on this path, it wouldn't be soft earth underneath them, but solid cement. And Danny didn't trust her to be able to control her tangibility should she end up falling.

"Lilly, I don't want to freak you out or nothing… but I need to tell you… you're flying right now, and have been for that last few minutes… You need to focus on how you feel up here, what you're doing to stay up. Can you feel the energy I talked about earlier?" Danny said, watching the girl's eyes carefully.

Lilly still maintained her angry look as Danny talked, but at the mention of 'you are flying' her eyes widened. She began to wobble a bit.

"The energy in your veins right now! The feeling of being weightless, focus on it! Don't think about the ground or landing. Keep your eyes on me. You don't need earth. All you need is to be weightless," Danny said quickly, floating closer to her in case she started to fall.

Lilly still wobbled in the air, but she kept eye contact with Danny. Danny hovered in the air, vertical to the ground about fifteen feet in front of Lilly who stumbled a bit, trying to maintain her more horizontal flight.

"That's it, just hold on to the feeling and don't let it go," he shifted closer to her. He waited with bated breath while Lilly tittered left and right, forward and back, bobbing like a cork in the ocean. But she didn't fall, she didn't lose altitude and she didn't take her eyes off Danny.

"I'm… I'm flying?" she asked after a few moments.

"Yeah, you are," Danny confirmed.

"How… how high up… are we?"

"That's not important, I won't let you fall, you just focus on the feeling of flight and memorize it," Danny said. "Take you time."

But time was something they didn't have apparently.

Lilly's phone began to ring, and her concentration was broken. She began to plummet to the ground.

Danny chased after her, his legs disappearing into a wisp of a tail as he streaked after her. She hadn't fallen fifteen feet before Danny caught her under the arms and slowed her decent before coming to a complete stop, hundreds of feet above the earth.

Passing on his flight to her, she rose up until she was level with Danny. She was breathing hard and fast her hands clamped hard on his forearms. The phone still ringing in her pocket. Danny, seeing Lilly wouldn't be capable of answering the phone any time soon, reached a hand towards her.

"I'm going to phase the phone out of your pocket, okay?" Danny said, though he was pretty sure Lilly didn't hear him. He phased his own hand through the pocket of her pants until he felt the phone and grabbed it. A second later the phone was outside the pocket and Danny flipped it open, shuffling Lilly over so that both her hands gripped only his left forearm.

Answering the phone, he held it up to his ear. "Hello, Jazz Fenton? It's Phantom. I have Lilly and she's fine," he said, not sure if Lilly was comprehending what he said or not, he didn't want to seem too familiar with Jazz.

"Danny! What happened?! Why do you have Lilly's phone?" Jazz asked, shocked.

"I'll let Lilly explain. It's nothing dangerous, no ghost attacked or anything. But I'm going to fly her home now," Danny replied. "We will be a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay… I'll just wait at Fenton Work's with Sam, Tucker and Danny then," Jazz said slowly. "Be careful no one sees you," and she ended the call.

Danny inwardly groaned. If Sam and Tucker were at the house there was no getting out of them knowing what he'd done. At least if Lilly was around, they couldn't chew him out just yet.

"Lilly?" Danny asked, placing the phone in his own pocket and turning his full attention to Lilly. The girl's breathing had slowed and her grip on his arm had lessened a bit but now there was a new expression in her eyes. Shock.

"You- you have no legs!"

 ** _Posted 1/5/19_**

Another chapter edited with a cat on my belly... Hope you enjoyed it.

About the * in the chapter. That line I'm sure is a quote from something but for the life of me I can't remember what! And it's bugging me! So if you recognize it... let me know? Also, as intangibility isn't something anyone has experienced first hand so I didn't try to go explaining it.

This story is in June 1998, Harry Potter was released in America in September 1998 so Danny and company won't know who that is for another few months.

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	17. Chapter 17: Time to Explain

_**Chapter Seventeen: Time to Explain**_

 _Sunday, June 8_ _th_ _, 1998_

Abbi clung to Phantoms hand as the two of them flew 'home'. He had offered to take her back after her sudden understanding of flight. She clung to the feeling of being weightless, it was rather easy since she couldn't see her body. Phantom was passing on his invisibility to her so they would be able to travel unnoticed. They didn't talk after she agreed to be escorted home, it was odd enough not being able to see herself. But talking to an equally invisible Phantom? She'd rather not.

The Fenton Works sign came into view and she heard Phantom say they could begin to descend. As they lowered to below roof level, their bodies regained their visibility. Abbi almost stumbled at the sudden change but was able to stop herself and regain flight. She didn't notice Jazz, Tucker and Sam waiting outside the front door or Jazz's sudden jaw drop which made Phantom laugh. Though he stopped when he saw Sam's face.

The two touched down on the street in front of the three humans and Abbi instantly dropped Phantoms hand.

"What is going on, you two?" Jazz asked, a bit worried looking from one to the other.

"I'll let you explain. I've got to go," Phantom said. Rising back into the air. Abbi sent a glare his way, but he only smiled. Gave them all a two fingered solute and vanished. Wherever he went from there, Abbi didn't know.

Jazz kept looking at Abbi. "Well?"

"Um… Well…"

"Is she back yet?" came Danny's voice from the front door.

Abbi caught his eye and she gave a feeble wave.

"Hey! Jazz said you were hanging out with Phantom? How did that happen?" he asked, hurrying down the stairs, happily ignoring Sam and Tucker's efforts to dash upstairs with him.

Abbi's expression darkened. Why was her father so interested in Phantom? He seemed genuinely excited that she'd gotten to 'hang out' with him. Danny clearly saw the change in Abbi's deminer, and his face fell a little.

"He must have been following me, creepy stalker. Showed up when I was walking through a neighborhood," Abbi explained. Guessing the confusion in Danny's eyes was for how Phantom found her.

"Did you attack him again!?" Sam shouted, stomping up and getting between Abbi and Danny.

"Attack him?" Jazz asked, "When did she attack him?"

"The moment she met him the other day, after he saved her from the box ghost," Sam said, clearly ready for Jazz to be on their side and not Lilly's. "She attacked him with what appeared to be ectoenergy. Ghost powers."

Jazz froze at this comment, gazing between Sam and Lilly. "W-what?"

"She hurt Phantom after he saved her life an-"

"Hey guys? Maybe we should move this conversation inside?" Danny interrupted. Pointing down the street at a group of people who were walking along the sidewalk. "We don't need any added interruptions, do we?"

Gazing down at the teens making their way down the opposite side of the street, Abby saw a Hispanic girl with long dark hair, a Caucasian blond and two large football player types all laughing about something. A looked a bit familiar to Abbi but she couldn't place them.

"Ugh, let's go," Sam grumbled, staking up the stairs and into Fenton Works. Danny and Tucker quickly followed leaving Jazz alone with Abbi.

"Did you really attack Phantom?" Jazz asked, a note of worry barely concealed in her voice.

Abbi looked down without answering the question. "We should get inside." She turned to the stairs and headed into the house. The sounds of the other teen's laughter were cut off as Jazz shut the door behind her.

"Okay, what is going on that you haven't told me?" Jazz asked.

"Just like I said, after Phantom saved her from the box ghost, she attacked him," Sam seethed, glaring at Abbi. The level of ferocity surprised Abbi. Sure she knew her mom must care for this ghost but it seemed the longer she held in her anger the more it grew.

"Is that true?" Jazz asked, turning her question to Abbi and Danny.

Reluctantly the two nodded, though Abbi didn't notice Danny's nod.

"Why would you do that, Lilly?" Jazz asked, anger and even disappointment in her voice.

"She won't tell us," Tucker replied. "She called him a 'rotten lowlife scumbag jerk, son of a half-troll, rat-eating, sludge bucket'."

Four pairs of eyes turned to look at Tucker in confusion.

"A what?" Jazz asked.

"Well… maybe not all of that…"

"Pretty sure she only called him a 'rotten lowlife scum'," Danny said, "Where 'rat-eating' came from… I'm not sure."

"Guys! Can we focus please!" Sam shouted. Having recovered from Tucker's bizarre comment and refocused her anger back on Abbi.

"So, what happened that I missed? No one said anything about her attacking Phantom the other day," Jazz asked, looking at the younger teens.

Sam clearly was too angry to answer coherently, and Tucker couldn't be very trusted to give an accurate account. So, Jazz focused her question to Danny and Lilly, hoping one of them would begin to explain. "How did this all start?"

Danny sighed. "Fine, it makes it harder when you don't know anyway…"

"Don't know what?" Jazz asked.

Danny looked over at Abbi, "We were bound to tell her eventually, who knows, maybe she can help to?"

"Whatever, you know about as much as I do about how to get me home," Abbi replied. Glaring at the coffee table as if it was that which trapped her here.

She listened as Danny relayed the story of them hanging out and how Abbi fell out of the sky from an odd colored light and landed unconsciously on top of Danny. About them taking her to the hospital and her waking up. Eventually getting to the part where she was attacked by 'The Box Ghost'.

"We came upon the box ghost attacking Lilly over on 7th street right as Phantom showed up to catch him. It was a short fight, and Phantom had him captured right away but when Abbi saw Phantom, she shouted at him and attacked him with ectoplasm made into a rope. She was able to hurt him with it and Sam ended up then sucking Lilly into the Thermus as if she was a ghost… Phantom flew off once she was caught and we brought her here and released her into a to Fenton Lobster-Pot," Danny explained to the silent room. "At first it contained her but when she calmed down, she fell through the shield. Shortly after she wouldn't answer our questions… Sam shot her with the ecto-goo gun, then you showed up… She won't tell us where she's from, how she got her powers, what they might be, or even what her name is. We do know she wasn't experimented on by the Guy's in White or by Plasmious, we know she had no family in Amity Park to look for and that she hates Phantoms guts for a reason she won't explain."

More silence followed Danny's story as Jazz let this all sink in.

"And when were you going to tell me any of this?" she asked them. "Why lie in the first place? What good did that do?" she continued, this time addressing Abbi.

"You didn't hand me over to the police as a missing person…?" she tried.

"Or to the ghost warden as a run-away ghost." Sam growled.

"But how can she be a ghost? She looks perfectly human to me," Jazz asked turning to Danny.

"I have no clue, but the Fenton Thermos and Lobster-Pot contained her for a considerable amount of time. It takes more then just a little Ecto-contamination for those items to work on a human. Some part of her has been seriously affected by ghost energy," Danny replied.

Jazz turned to Abbi. "What do you have to say? How come you have ghost power? It's unheard of."

Abbi looked between the two Fenton's with worry in her eyes. "I-I don't know… honestly I don't. The day I arrived here was the first time I'd ever done anything remotely supernatural… I don't know how I got them or anything…"

"And you were with Phantom… he brought you home, what was all that about? Clearly something happened there," Jazz continued.

"He… he found me trying to make ecto-energy. He offered to give me some lessons on ghost powers. Said it's dangerous to not have control over them in a town full of ghost hunters or something to that effect. So he was trying to teach me how to control my different powers…" Abbi explained, her eyes not leaving the coffee-table again.

"So, you do have ghost powers? In a human body?" Jazz asked, disbelieving. Abbi nodded. Unseen by Abbi, Jazz gazed at Danny, unspoken questions flying between the two. Danny shook his head and shrugged, the only answer he could give her with Abbi in the room.

"Well Phantom was right about the dangers…" Jazz finally said, sighing heavily.

"What?" Abbi asked, shocked at her aunt's reaction.

"We've had problems in the past, a ghost virus caused all the kids at school to develop powers that they couldn't control. It was a nightmare trying to cure them. Mom and Dad did their best but in the end, it was Phantom that saved everyone."

Abbi gazed at the others in surprise. "You're joking… right?"

All four of them shook their heads.

"I was floating on the ceiling," Sam said.

"I had no form and had to be contained in a glass jar," Jazz continued, shuddering.

"My cologne ended up keeping all the bugs from biting me, so I was safe," Tucker answered. "Didn't help much as I ended up breaking my leg and getting sent to the hospital anyway."

Abbi gave a little bit of a smile to that, she knew how much Tucker hated doctors. She looked at Danny, waiting for him to tell her his ghost power.

"Me? Oh, um. I was affected by… invisibility… not easy when doctors try to help you…" he explained, not looking at Abbi. "So…. Phantom helped you with some powers? Which ones?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Oh… um, intangibility and flight…" she answered, looking at her feet. "I'm not that great a flyer…"

"Well at least he didn't teach you how to attack anyone. That would be very very stupid!" Sam shouted loudly, making Danny wince.

"He seemed to think I couldn't hurt him with such little experience," Abbi said, her fists clenching in anger. Suddenly they light up green and a beeping started in the house.

"Oh no!" Danny shouted, "Down!"

Suddenly everyone was diving for the floor. Danny dashed in Abbi's direction and pulled her to the ground, laying over her and protecting her from the ecto-rays that were shooting around the room.

"Stop the Ecto-ray, stop using your powers and the house will stop shooting at us," Danny shouted over the sounds of zapping.

"Ho-how!" she shouted, scared as a ray whizzed past her head.

"You need to relax and calm down!" Danny answered. "Let go of the energy," he explained.

But what happened next wasn't what he had meant.

 _ **Posted 2/5/19**_

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	18. Chapter 18: Ecto-blasts

_**Chapter Eighteen: Ecto-blasts**_

 _Sunday, June 8_ _th_ _, 1998_

The blast of green light that shot from Lilly's hand hit Danny hard on the chest. All around them the house continued to shoot at them, zeroing in on Lilly's power source. Danny heard Jazz and his friends shouting his name, but he didn't move off Lilly. His chest burned and he was sure he was bleeding to some extent. But even though he was already hit in the chest, he could still take whatever the house through at him, he wasn't so sure about Lilly.

"Hang on!" Jazz shouted to the room. Danny saw her duck out of the room, her back hunched over and walking as low to the ground as she could. He hoped she hurried. He could feel Lilly charging another blast out of fear and he knew better then anyone how hard it was to control ectoplasm. A second blast hit Danny in the chest as the energy grew too big for Lilly to hold on to. At the same time a blast from the house hit Danny in the back.

He cried out in pain even as he heard the house's alarms winddown. The lasers retreated into the walls and the windows opened back up, letting light flood the room. Sam and Tucker ran to where Danny was positioned over Lilly.

"Danny!" Sam shouted, seeing the blast on his back.

"Hang in there, buddy," Tucker said as he and Sam each grabbed a shoulder and lifted him off from where Lilly lay. As he was moved, he saw where some of his own blood had spilled onto Lilly. Tucker and Sam laid him on his side, facing Lilly. She was trembling and each fist held a small ecto-blast. Wincing as he moved, Danny reached a hand over and grabbed Lilly's hand, gaining her attention.

"You can relax now, Jazz turned off the house defenses. Nothing more will shoot at you," he said calmly if not a bit winded. "I think Phantom's next lesson should be on ecto-blasts, just so this doesn't happen again, don't you?"

Tears were gathering in her eyes and Danny was sure her vision was blurred at his point, but the green glow from her hands died down before it finally vanished just as Jazz came running back into the room, a First Aid Kit in her hand. "Did anyone get hit?" she called before her eyes fell on Danny. "Oh, Danny," she said softly, falling to her knees beside him and cautiously examining his back.

"Might as well just cut the shirt off Jazz, I'm not moving very soon to help take it off," he told her, resigned to the fact another shirt was trashed. He knew his shirt must be in destroyed with a hole in both the front and the back where he was hit. And the only way for her to dress the wound would be to have the shirt off.

A gasp from Lilly brought his attention back to the girl in front of him. She had sat up and was facing Danny, her legs bent oddly underneath her. She had wiped the tears from her eyes and was gazing at the burn on Danny's chest with dawning horror in her eyes.

"Did… did I do that?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Danny tried to sit up at that, knowing the poor girl blamed herself, and while…yes… she was the cause, Danny didn't blame her for it. Lilly's question had gained Jazz's attention and she moved to look at Danny's front, noticing the second burn for the first time. Her eyes widened.

"She… blasted you?" Jazz asked, amazed.

"It wasn't her fault. She doesn't know how to stop the power yet. It will heal soon enough…" Danny said, trying to dispel the fear and guilt in Lilly's eyes.

"Let's get you sat up," Jazz said. "Tucker, Sam, give me a hand."

Together the three of them moved Danny to a sitting position, his legs crossed in front of him, while Jazz began to cut his shirt off his torso. Tucker and Sam sat down on the floor with them. In silence the three onlookers watched as Jazz examined both wounds and began pulling out different jars and bandages from the First Aid Kit.

"How… how come this hurt Danny…?" Lilly asked, subdued. "I thought you said ectoplasm doesn't effect humans…"

"Ectoplasm doesn't. It's no different from the goop that you were covered in a few days ago. The Ecto-blasts are different. They harm ghosts quite a bit but are normally non-life threatening to humans, that doesn't mean they don't cause harm. Also, close range hits as well as the strength of the attack matter in how much damage is done," Danny explained, gritting his teeth against the sting of the antiseptic Jazz had just administered. "The two blasts you hit me with damaged more than the single blast on my back because they were more concentrated Ecto-blasts. The guns my parents installed are designed to do the least amount of damage to humans as possible."

The lie slipped through his teeth easily. It was true to an extent; the guns were meant to be as safe as possible around humans since they were inside the Fenton's home itself. However, with Danny's ghost powers comes a high level of susceptibility to the ecto-weaponry even while in human form. Thus, the three attacks caused far more damage to him then they would have caused to an average human like Tucker or Sam.

Lilly listened to his explanation through tear-filled eyes. Each hiss of pain he made, each jerk his body gave seemed to hurt Lilly more than any of the others. Of course, the others were used to Danny being injured, they also were aware of his quick healing power that would allow his body to heal much faster, leaving no trace of the burns once completely healed. That didn't mean they had to like it. In all honesty they could even let the wound be, without giving any first-aid, but that would cause more questions and Jazz hated seeing her brother injured in any way.

"Here is the worse of it, Danny," Jazz said, having finished treating his back and moved on to the front burns. Lilly gasped in fear at Jazz's words. This was the wound she had caused, and hearing Jazz say that was no help in calming her down. Danny was about to reply, to reassure Lilly that it was nothing and he would be just fine when Jazz began spraying the burn.

Danny was unprepared for the sheer height of pain that that first spray of antiseptic brought. His outcry of pain was louder than he meant. The cry died down soon enough, replaced with a frantic gasping of air as the stinging subsided. But at Danny's cry, Lilly gave a cry of her own, and to everyone's shock she turned from Danny and all but flung herself at Sam. Grasping the girl in a hug tight enough to make breathing difficult for the unsuspecting girl.

Lilly sobbed into Sam's shoulder even though Sam had not moved. She neither embraced the crying girl or pushed her away. No, Sam's eyes were wide in shock and surprise, meeting Danny's eyes over the girls back. Her shock was reflected in his eyes, both slowly turning to confusion.

Of all people to seek comfort from… why her? Why Sam? Who had shown nothing but hostility towards her since she arrived?

When it became apparent that Lilly wasn't going to release Sam any time soon, her look turned pleading, begging someone to get the girl away from her. Danny caught sight of her look and bit back the smallest of chuckles. Poor Sam. She was being hugged. And Danny knew hugging was the single most horrible experience any Goth could be forced to endure.

 _ **Posted 2/15/19**_

What did you think? Let me know! Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	19. Chapter 19: At Phantom's Keep

**_Chapter Nineteen: At Phantom's Keep_**

 _Friday, June 8th, 2018_

Phantom had just returned from his latest trip to the human realm, exhausted. He had not taken these many trips in such succession since Sam had been close to labor and Abbi was a newborn. And each trip wielded no results. No sign of Abbi and no new plan on getting her back.

He had a bit of hope for later today when he was expecting a visit from Clockwork and another from the Ghost Writer. Perhaps one of them would know when Abbi was sent to and when she might be back. Surely Clockwork knew or would be able to look back through his mirrors to see when she had landed in their past. Maybe he could even go back and get her as he was the Master of Time and all. Or perhaps Ghost Writer had knowledge of when she arrived and could even make it so she made it back right then and there. He would have to wait and see.

Sam was holding up better then he thought she would. She had called in sick to work the past few days, being too worried to get work done but she was keeping it together. She was able to sleep at night and keeping busy with housework. Her steady confidence since his second visit had helped keep Phantom level headed as well.

This was not the worse thing that had ever happened to them, he was able to put Pariah's attack on Amity Park above this on the 'worst things ever' list but loosing Abbi in the past was defiantly second.

He laid on his bed, staring up at his dark blue ceiling. Naturally, with the castle building itself to Phantoms personality, his own bedroom ceiling had taken on the looks of the living realm's night sky. The stars even moved and changed with the seasons, allowing him to view the different constellations. Most nights he appreciated the sight, but he had to admit every so often it angered him. Taunting him with what could have been and what he missed out on each night he had to stay in the Ghost Zone.

Today it just made him sad.

Glaring at it he turned away swiftly, rolling onto his side and gazing around the room without seeing any of the detail. The same questions kept going through his mind.

 _When had Abigail landed? Would she learn Danny was a halfa before she found a way back home? If she did, what would her reaction be? Would she be revolted? When (he couldn't consider 'if' as a possibility) she got back would she want anything to do with Phantom? She had always liked the paranormal according to Sam so maybe she would think it was cool? What powers had she developed? Would Danny really be able to help her with them?_

He never remembered teaching anyone how to use halfa powers. Not even Dani. Vlad had taught her everything by the time Danny had met her. He helped her out with a few things, like when she developed her ice power, but really all he did was give her more complicated practice then actively teaching her what to do. He had considered different ideas over the last few years, trying to prepare for any powers Abbi might develop. Part of him hoped she would not develop any, that she could live a normal human life; but a selfish part of Phantom hoped she would develop at least some ghost powers. It would give him a way of bonding with her that he had been robbed of since before she was born. And now… he was missing out on even that!

He had envisioned hundreds of different ways to tell Abbi about his status as a halfa and being the Ghost King. Never had he pictured it happening when he wasn't even around to help her though it. He had imagined teaching her all he knew now after over a decade as a ghost (because, honestly, that's what he was). Showing her the Ghost Zone for the first time. Giving her a tour of Phantom's Keep. Flying with her for the first time. Helping her with control over visibility, and intangibility. Hopefully she wouldn't have trouble with that like he had, it would be so much worse for a girl to keep losing her pants at school. Maybe she would even have a halfa form. Her very own 'Phantom' look. Now there was a high chance he wouldn't get to do any of that with her.

Well… not really…

 _Danny_ might be there, but he wouldn't know Abbi was his daughter. Or would Abbi tell them? Would she let Danny, Sam and Tucker know exactly who she was? Would they force it out of her? Or would she tell them as a last resort of finding a way home? Would they believe her? What would fourteen-year-old Danny think of some random girl showing up with ghost powers? Would he think she was another clone like Dani? Would she appear before Dani showed up in his life? If she did how would Danny react?

He rolled back over to stare at the ceiling.

He didn't know how Danny would react. He knew too much information now, had changed so much since he was fourteen to know how he would have reacted to some strange girl showing up, looking like a mix of Sam and him but with ghost powers.

"AHhhhh," he groaned. He was back at square one. Having walked the same thought path he had over the last three days without any new revelation to show for it.

"Is this a bad time?"

Phantom looked towards the bedroom doors to see Dani standing there with Al holding her hand.

"Not really, what did you need?" Phantom asked, gazing back up at the stars.

"Clockwork just arrived, I said I would fetch you," Dani continued, taking a step into the room. When Phantom only sighed, she continued. "Is something wrong?"

Phantom gave her a look.

"Other than your daughter being lost in the timestream?" she amended riley. "I figured you would be jumping at the chance to talk to old Cogs."

"Yes, but at the same time, no," Phantom said, sitting up and throwing his feet over the side of the bed.

"How come?" Al asked, confusion in his green eyes.

"Well, buddy, I'm hoping he can tell me how to get your cousin back but I'm afraid that won't be the case. I don't want to hear him say he can't help, and that Abbi is on her own," Phantom explained, a sad smile on his face.

"Oh," Al replied, nodding a little. Phantom knew he didn't quite understand just yet, he was too young still, but the boy understood enough to know his cousin was in danger wherever it was she was.

"Well sitting here putting it off won't help Abbi one way or another, so get your Kingly butt off the bed and let's go see old Cogs," Dani said.

That at least made Phantom laugh. "Only you could get away with saying such disrespectful things to your King."

"The perks of being a princess," Dani retorted.

"Queen Dora never said stuff like that to me."

"Well she doesn't have the honor of being related to you, and thus free from all the royal protocols that come with you being 'The Great One'."

"You realize you are being a poor example to your son, right?"

"You are being the bad example keeping your honored guest waiting so long."

"I'm the King. It's my subjects' job to wait on me," Phantom replied slyly.

Al giggled at that comment. "But Uncle Phantom, you swore an oaf to serve your people."

"It called a 'oath'" Phantom replied, laughing a bit. "And I did, I serve them, they wait on me, it's a give and take relationship. But your mom's right, let's not keep the old Stopwatch waiting any longer."

Phantom walked over to the two and reached down to pick up his six-year-old nephew when he was close enough. "Come on, buddy," he said, rising into the air to head out the door, the small ghost child in his arms. He remembered when he, Phantom, had been the only 'ghost child' around.

Phantom had been happy when Dani arrived one day at his castle a year after he became King. She had had her fill of traveling the world and stopped by to see him. He still went by Danny when she came back but as time passed and Dani became a permanent resident of the castle, he had gradually switched over to being called Phantom, if only to know which Phantom the other ghosts spoke to. It became far more barrable living in the Zone once Dani arrived. She was a spitfire, still is one, and when Al came along everything got all the more entertaining. He couldn't deny the fact that Dani having her son here by her side, allowed to raise him herself didn't make him jealous of her but seeing her happy outweighed the jealousy. And Phantom took to spoiling his nephew like any good uncle would.

Al was the spitting image of his mom, which meant he also looked like a young Danny as well, but his personality took more after his father then either of his Phantom relatives. A bit quiet, more reserved, and every bit a royal that Frostbite and Dora tried to make him. He was polite around any ghost he didn't know, sat quietly if he ever had the fortune of joining a meeting, listening intently to the adults discuss boring politics. He had his own set of powers but was, as of now, not being officially trained in combat. The Zone had been peaceful for nearly all of Phantom's reign and he intended to keep it that way.

Dani followed, floating along by his side. She was a major reason he wanted to keep the Zone peaceful. While his own wife and child might live safely beyond the reach of any ghost wars, Dani lived smack-dab in the middle of any possible war that might occur. She was his right-hand-man, so to speak, giving input where she could, helping him run the kingdom when she was needed, but that didn't stop Phantom from seeing her as his responsibility. It was his job to keep her safe, give her and her family a home. Was it fatherly affection for her? Maybe at times it was, but mostly it was brotherly affection. She was his little sister in many ways. She still tended to use the term 'cousins' for them and he didn't mind. They were family and that's what counted.

"And thanks," Phantom said quietly to her.

"Any time," Dani replied, smiling up at him.

"Where's Samuel, anyway?" Phantom asked.

"Training some new recruits in how to handle a sword," Dani replied, a hit of longing in her voice.

"Jealous?"

"No!"

"Maybe."

"I knew it," Phantom smirked.

"It's not fair that I have to sit out on training just because of this!" Dani complained, motioning to her growing belly.

"You'd rather endanger-"

"Of course not!" Dani shouted. "But I can still fight! Growing a ghost hasn't robbed me of my ecto-energy blasts or my-"

"I know it hasn't, but you'll have to take that up with your husband, I'm not getting in between you two on this one. I'd rather keep what's left of my afterlife, thanks," Phantom cut her off, laughing.

Samuel, his brother-in-law. It was odd enough watching Dani date a living human for the couple of months she had tried to attend collage on Phantom's request. He wanted what was best for her and at the beginning of her stay in the Zone, Phantom was sure that for her, the living world was the best option as she was still alive. When she first told him about Samuel he was weirded out.

So Dani was his clone, he'd more than gotten used to that. She was a girl, that was obvious even if somehow, she was still his clone. They looked alike, acted alike, had the same interests. But when she developed a crush on a boy named 'Samuel' while Phantom married 'Samantha'. Let's just say it took a lot of getting used to. Then the horror of Samuel's death came. It was by illness and it was quick. Dani didn't come back to the Zone for the few weeks Samuel was in the hospital. Phantom hadn't known it was even a fatal illness. Then one day Dani is showing a new ghost into the Keep and introducing him to Samuel for the first time. _That_ hadn't been awkward at all.

The poor guy goes from dating a 'cute girl' to finding out that cutie was already half dead and her also half dead brother was the King of the Dead? Phantom didn't envy the poor ghost one bit. It took far longer for Dani to pluck up the courage and tell Samuel the full truth about why her and her 'cousin' shared a name, looked like twins more than even simple siblings and were both half-dead creatures that looked just as alike alive as they did dead.

Samuel hadn't been able to look at Phantom for a month after that discussion.

But in the end Samuel had accepted all things ghost, halfa and full-fledged dead alike. He even went as far as to learn to fight. Becoming a bit of a force to be reckoned with himself. He was still far quieter then Dani but the two fit together well. And when Samuel asked Phantom for his blessing, Phantom had no ground to stand on to say no. But boy was he glad that Samuel had always refused being called 'Sam', even before he was a ghost.

Soon enough the three of them reached the 'throne room' and Phantom was pulled from his thoughts as they entered. The room was large, a huge stone chair sat on a raised platform at the far wall. Stone pillars held up the ceiling and were engraved with intricately detailed pictures of Phantom's past battles. Some depicted his defeat of Pariah Dark, others showed him fighting Nocturn or Undergrowth. They were a testament to his power and to his right to hold the title of Ghost King. But Phantom rarely used this room. It was odd enough when he had been twenty-one and his Coronation had been held here making him feel like some King Arthur wannabe, but to hold meeting and royal councils here too? No. He preferred those taking place in a much smaller room located nearby where he wasn't sitting on some elaborate stone chair that wouldn't move and couldn't be pulled up to a table to allow actual work to be accomplished.

But Clockwork was always one for formalities.

"Hello, Clockwork, thanks for coming to see me," Phantom called, catching the notice of the child ghost hovering near the throne platform.

"King Phantom," he replied, bowing to Phantom as he switched to a middle-aged ghost instead of a child. Phantom had given up on stopping Clockwork calling him 'King' long ago. The ghost's eyes slid over to the boy in Phantom's arms and Dani by his side. "Princess Danielle, Prince Alastor," he greeted, bowing to them as well.

"Clockwork!" Al shouted, jumping from his uncles' arms and flying over to the Ghost of Time.

'Prince Alastor'. That got Phantom every time. He didn't hate the boy's name, no; and he didn't dislike him being a prince either. But what he wouldn't do to go back in time and stop himself from giving Dani a copy of the Harry Potter series… If only to spare the poor child being named after 'Mad-Eye Moody' himself? The horrors…

"Guess what!?" Al shouted.

"You have lost your third tooth earlier this week," Clockwork guessed without guessing.

"Yup!" the boy laughed, "See?!" he opened his mouth wide to show off the new gap in his top row of teeth.

"I do, yes," Clockwork replied, smiling to the boy.

"When will the next one fall out?" Al asked excited.

"I'm afraid you will have to wait a while, a tooth will come in before the next one falls out," Clockwork answered him.

"Really?" Al sounded in awe. "Did you hear that mom!? I'm going to get a tooth soon!" Al shouted, turning and running towards Dani.

"Won't that be exciting," Dani laughed, "Now come on, we need to let Uncle Phantom and Clockwork discuss important thing in peace."

"Let's go tell dad about my new tooth!" Al shouted, racing out of the room, dragging his mom behind him.

Phantom shook his head, smiling, before turning a much more somber eye on Clockwork.

"I assume you know why I asked you to come?"

"I do," Clockwork answered, giving no further answer than that.

"And? Do you know where and when Abigail is? Can you bring her back?" Phantom asked, hoping beyond hope.

"I can not see where she has arrived, nor can I bring her back here, the windows tell me nothing of her trip through time," Clockworks tone spoke of confusion and resentment, never before had the windows failed to show him what he asked for.

"N-nothing?" Phantom gasped, fear settling more heavily on his heart.

"Nothing," the ghost replied, shifted from a man to a child once more.

"Can- can you tell if she will arrive back here on her own? Will she get back here soon?"

"The windows to the future show many possible futures, King Phantom. In most Abigail does return, but not in all, no. neither can I tell you when she might return," his voice regretful. "I am sorry, my King."

Phantom's eyes had drifted to the floor. Phantom himself had sunk onto the platform, his head held in his hands. "What if she never comes back?" he asked. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I can't answer you that, but have faith, Princess Abigail is a clever girl. It is too soon to think she won't make it back," Clockwork bowed once more before bidding Phantom farewell and drifting from the room, leaving Phantom to his thoughts.

 ** _Posted 3/5/19_**

So we headed back to see how Phantom was doing. Every time I meant to type 'Phantom' I had to remind myself not to type 'Danny' instead. A little back-story to the whole Danny/Phantom name change here and we got to see a familiar face who hasn't had any screen time in the story yet. Dani!

So what did you think? Too weird? Danielle and Samuel? I had a hard time picking a name for their son... really hard, I wanted it to be close to 'Abigail' just because. Anyway, hope you liked it! Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 ** _Morning Bleach_**


	20. Chapter 20: Getting to Know You

**_Chapter Twenty: Getting to Know You_**

 _Tuesday, June 10th, 1998_

After Abbi's 'unprovoked attack' (as Sam had taken to calling the incident), Abbi had doubled in her resolve to learn to control her 'ghostly powers'. She had left Fenton Works each day after breakfast and walked to the outskirts of the town somewhere different each day and somehow Phantom would magically arrive even though Abbi gave him no time or location beforehand.

The first day Phantom had listened carefully to Abbi retell the story of her accidental attack on Danny. He seemed sympathetic to her experience. "Every ghost is different. There is no set path our powers take in developing to truly give adequate warning for what we might or might not develop. As we don't know how you came to have these powers, we know absolutely nothing about how they will develop. This might be the extent of all the powers you will gain or you could develop ones specific to you."

"Specific to me? How is that?"

"Well, like the Box Ghost having his power over 'all this cardboard and square and occasionally bubble wrap' or Technis who prefers 'all things electrical and beeping' I think was how he put it," Phantom explained, floating cross-legged some feet off the ground.

"What about you? Do you have some special ability?" Abbi asked, focusing her efforts on staying level with Phantom while holding a glowing ball if ecto energy in her right hand.

"I have cyrotenises, ice powers. Not all ghosts develop this power but there are other ghosts, Frostbite – I mentioned him a few days ago – he is the leader of a group of Yeti ghosts that live in the Far Frozen in the Zone. They helped me when my ice powers first awakened. Nearly did me in, and would have, if it wasn't for them."

"You mean, they almost killed you? Again?"

"Basically, and not a fun way to go either, but I do think the electricity was worse," Phantom replied as if his comment was about the weather.

Abbi lost the grip on her ball of energy that was her task in this lesson. She gaped at Phantom.

He shook his head. "If a little comment like that is going to make you lose concentration so easily, you won't get far in a fight."

At _that_ comment, she fell to the ground.

He leaned forward, looking down at her. "Come on, I wasn't even trying that time. Well, not much, anyway."

Abbi glared at him. "Why do I listen to you in the first place. For all I know, everything you've been telling me is a lie. Ice powers? Really? Almost freezing to the ghost equivalent of death?"

Phantom raised an eye brow at her. "Think I'm lying, do you?"

Abbi's only warning was the change in Phantom's eye color. The radioactive green she had become accustomed to switched to a brilliant glowing blue. Suddenly a cold wind was whipping around them as snow swirled all around the wooded grove the two were practicing in. Snow began turning the world white as the tree trunks and branches were coated in ice. Faster than a time-lapse on YouTube, the white powder was accumulating around Abbi's fallen form and in the dips in the ground. Abbi had barely blinked and suddenly she was in the middle of a blizzard. The only light came from Phantom who still hung suspended in the air, shining onto the snow as it swirled around him.

"Um… Okay!" Abbi called over the wind as shivers raced up her spine. The jeans and T-shirt she wore were no match for the sudden artic climate. "You- you can st-stop now! I b-b-b-believe you," she called, her arms crossed in front of her, holding what little warmth remaining in her clothes to her body.

Just as suddenly as it came. The wind vanished and the snow in the air slowed until gravity took over and it fell to the ground; completing the snowy portrait that had appeared around her. The sun shown once more through the branches of the trees above them and the air began to warm back up, but the now present snow kept the cold locked below the trees. At least without the wind, the cold was far more bearable then before.

Glancing up at Phantom she saw his eyes still shown with that blue glow. It was odd how familiar his gaze was after only a few afternoons with him. And this look was even more so, even though it was the first time she was seeing him with the blue glow. She caught herself gazing at him in awe and confusion.

He gave a little tiny 'heh' of laughter, his hand coming up to rub his left arm. "Just imagine that being trapped inside you for hours and you'll have a small idea of what it feels like to freeze from the inside out. Not pleasant at all. But now I control it. I can release it when I need to and harness it in a fight. Comes in handy, especially when fighting plant-based ghosts like Undergrowth." Phantom looked around their little snow globe. "Guess I should melt it… don't want to kill any of the plants here with a sudden cold-snap. I'd be worse than dead if I did that…"

With that said, Phantom held out his gloved hand and, like his eyes, it glowed a brilliant blue. The snow on the ground and trees began to sail through the air towards him and vanish into the glow as it reached him. In no time at all the clearing was bright green once again and the summer day temperature returned quickly, leaving Abbi almost too warm after the chill Phantom had caused.

"That is my core's power," Phantom explained, his eyes having turned back to their 'normal' radioactive green glow. "Ice core, ice powers. If I had a fire core, I'd be more likely to set the forest on fire. Music cores allow one to control sound and us it to manipulate others. I've seen so many different types of cores it seems like just about anything can power a core, even Bad Luck."

"Core power? Bad luck?" Abbi asked. "I'm lost."

"A core… a ghost core is like our heart. If damaged it can be deadly, for lack of a better term. It holds all our power inside itself, allows us to manifest. Drain a core and the ghost will feel tired. Over energize a core and the ghost might go on a rampage. Never mess with your core. That's what Frostbite taught me," Phantom said gravely, his eyes darkening.

"Do… I mean, I'm not a ghost," Abbi started, drawing a raised eyebrow from Phantom as if he was saying 'yeah right'. "With having ghost abilities, will I have a core?" Abbi asked, choosing to ignore Phantom's expression.

"There is a good chance of it. How much of a core, I'm not sure; but even if you do it will take time for it to develop and time for it to then manifest its power. It took months for mine to begin showing signs of activating. Yours could very well take longer, but I'm only speculating. We are in uncharted territory with you," Phantom reasoned. "So, you're going to believe me now?" he asked, drawing his feet to the ground and offering Abbi a hand up.

"Was… was the comment about electricity true too?" Abbi asked, accepting his offer.

Once she was back on her feet, he gave her a searching look. Abbi was under the impression that he was deciding how much to tell her.

"Yes," he said slowly. "That is how…" he looked down at his outfit for some reason. "…this happened. Hurt like… well… anyway, not a pleasant memory, let's leave it at that."

"Right, I bet…" Abbi murmured, looking anywhere but at Phantom. She could not begin to imagine what it would be like to be dead and to remember your death, let alone remember your life like he said he could. Was his family still alive too? He said it was a few months, hadn't he? Wait… was she starting to feel sorry for this ghost?!

"We should move on to-" but he broke off. A puff of blue smoke billowed from his mouth while Abbi had her head turned to the ground. "Oh boy… here we go…"

"What?" Abbi asked, looking back at Phantom, confused.

"There is a ghost around, other than you and me."

"I'm not-" but Abbi cut off as a chill came up her spine and got stuck in her mouth. Phantom took up a defensive stance, facing away from Abbi towards the trees to their left and missed when her own puff of cold breath billowed from her mouth.

Both teens held their breath as they heard something crashing through the undergrowth in the trees surrounding them. It was circling them slowly while also drawing closer to their little grove. Phantom kept whatever the source of the sound was in front of him at all time and Abbi behind him, protecting her from whatever ill intent this new ghost posed. The sound grew louder, and Phantom formed a blast in his raised hand, ready to unleash it should an attack come.

Abbi could feel her nerves rising as each second ticked by without sight of their would-be attacker. Her own defensive ecto-blast formed even though she knew that she didn't know how to properly use it.

"If I tell you to run, you run, got it?" Phantom said, not taking his eyes off the tree line. Abbi gave a grunt in response, neither in agreement or argument of his command. Abbi wasn't sure she's be able to run. From what ghost's she'd seen so far, and the others she had only been told about, what were the chances she would even be able to run? "Got it?" Phantom asked again, fiercer this time.

But Abbi had no time to respond to this as at that moment the ghost burst from the trees.

Abbi let out a blood curtailing scream as a giant eight-foot-tall, glowing green, fanged beast wearing a black spiked collar came into view snarling and spitting. Saliva flying everywhere and a mad gleam in its glowing red eyes. The -for lack of a better word- dog, lashed out at the ghosts, barking and snapping it's teeth from the edge of the grove where it pawed the grounds, tearing up the earth with long claws.

Abbi's pitiful ecto blast died before it ever left her hand while Phantom let his dissipate on its on. Abbi watched in utter shock at the white-haired ghost boy, 'protector of Amity Part' relaxed his shoulders and stood up straight while the dog continued to snarl and snap. For a split-second Abbi wondered if Phantom was finally showing his true colors and going to feed her to the massive rabid dog when instead he put his finders to his lips; and whistled.

The dog's ears perked up and it jumped at them, teeth bared and snarling, it landed on Phantom and knocked him to the ground. Abbi screamed as she fell to the ground, flailing around, trying to run away when over the growling she began to hear laughter. The dog's snarls turned it to yips and yaps as it licked Phantom's front, from his logo to the tip of his hair in one swipe of his massive tongue.

"Get off," Phantom laughed. And to Abbi's utter shock, she watched as Phantom pushed the massive monster dog away from himself and stood up. He didn't even come to its neck while it stood there, panting happily wagging its tail, which looked like flames turned into fur. "Good dog, now, sit," Phantom said.

And it did. And in front of Abbi's eyes the dog began to shrink away. Fangs shrunk, legs shortened, its tail became a small wisp, only its head remained a bit too big to be normal, but the creature stayed as green and glowing as ever. The once eight-foot dog now sat at Phantom's feet, a mere puppy compared to the beast it had just been.

"Good boy, Cujo," Phantom said, allowing the dog to jump into his arms and continue it's licking of his face.

Laughing, Phantom turned around to find Abbi on her back on the ground, mid-spider-crawl away, her jaw hanging open in shock.

"Um, right, Lilly, this is Cujo, Cujo, this is a friend of mine, Lilly, so don't attack her, okay?" Phantom said, setting the dog back on the ground.

'Cujo' yipped happily and ran up to Abbi, where he began sniffing her jeans and sneakers, his tail wagging happily still.

"C-cujo?" Abbi asked, voice a bit high-pitched still.

"Yeah, he took a liking to me after I helped him find his squeak-toy from when he was alive. Now he comes to play fetch when he's bored and needs attention, otherwise he's pretty good about staying in the Ghost Zone," Phantom explained.

'Cujo' licked Abbi's arm, causing her to jump in fright, and scramble away from the dog again.

"He won't hurt you now," Phantom said, patting the pup. "He probably just didn't recognize your scent and got all defensive. He knows my scent, so he normally shows up in puppy mode, normally." Phantom looked back at Abbi. "You're not afraid of dog's, are you? I can take him somewhere else if you are…?"

Cujo sat down and panted happily at Abbi. He gazed from Phantom to Abbi and back and yipped in excitement. Jumping back up he sniffed between the two once again before producing a small squeak toy and dropping it in Abbi's lap. Jumping back, he bent down in a playful crouch and yipped at her expectantly.

Phantom laughed at this. "He's never asked anyone else to play before, normally it's only me. Maybe he can smell the ghost in you so he doesn't mind," Phantom speculated.

"Wonderful…" Abbi mumbled, picking the slobbery toy up while getting to her feet. Cujo barked in excitement, his eyes on the toy in her hand. "Well okay, um, Cujo, fetch!?" she shouted and threw the toy into the trees around them.

The pup yipped happily and dove into the brush after the toy.

"Any other pet's I should expect to show up while you teach me this stuff?" Abbi asked, turning to Phantom.

"No, not really. Enemies, yes, but not pets."

"That's not much of an encouragement…"

The play session with Cujo lasted almost two hours before the pup got tired and laid down to naw on the toy rather than run after it. By that time, it was close to lunch and Abbi couldn't suppress her stomach from growling just a little. Something that Phantom picked up rather instantly.

"You should go get some food if you're that hungry, I can make sure this mutt gets back to the Zone while you go," Phantom laughed, jabbing his thumb in Cujo's direction.

Abbi gave him an odd look. "How did you hear that?"

"What? The growl, easy, it wasn't exactly quiet."

"I barely heard it!"

"Really? Huh… I guess it's…"

"Now what?"

"We have enhanced hearing… and strength…"

The look Abbi gave Phantom could have sent him to his grave.

"Of course you do."

 _ **Posted 4/5/19**_

So I had planned on continuing this chapter to make it longer since it has been so long since I updated but I found as I continued on that it really didn't fit with the title of the chapter and was really moving on to the next phase of the story and I really can't let that be in this chapter, that needs to be a chapter unto itself.

Since it probably won't be explained in the story at any point I'll let you know here. Cujo can smell the similarities between Danny and Abbi and the similarity in their ghost powers, while he might not consciously know what that means, he knows they go together so he accepts her into his pack without any fuss. He hasn't met Dani at this point so this type of easy acceptance is a shock to Danny.

Hope all is well with you, and feel free to leave a review, they keep me smiling! And thanks for all the story follows, even if I've been less then steady with updating...

 _ **Morning Bleach**_

(Quinn is 22 months! oh wow!)


	21. Chapter 21: Breaking the Spell

**_Chapter Twenty-One: Breaking the Spell_**

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

Wednesday dawned bright and sunny in the Fenton household. Danny had made it through the night with only the box ghost attacking. It didn't take him more than a few minutes to catch him and he was back in bed before a quarter of an hour had passed. "Halfway though the parent free week," he mumbled to himself. "Not quite the week I thought it would be.

No. Sam, Tucker and Danny had planned hangouts and movie marathons, they'd even discussed working down in his parent's lab on some ghost tech while the adult scientists were away. But none of this had come to pass. Danny wasn't sulking per say but the arrival of one 'Lilly-I-have-ghost-powers-but-I'm-not-telling-you-the rest-of-the-story' had definitely thrown all 'fun' plans out the window.

She had taken up residence at the Fenton household for six days now and it really didn't look like she would be going anywhere anytime soon. They couldn't get one word out of her about where she belonged, what her home might be, not even about her parents; though from what Danny picked up it did seem like she was raised by a single mom and had no other siblings. At one horrible moment Danny thought that maybe she could be an unknown daughter of Vlad Masters, but Sam and Tucker had pieced together that that couldn't be the case. He had made the comment Monday evening while out walking with his two best friends after a day of training with Abbi.

"Remember you told us you asked her if the name Masters meant anything to her and she knew exactly who you were talking about," Tucker said. "If she was his kid, she's have acted more… off about your questions."

"Oh really? And you're some big behavioral annalist now, are you?"

"Well… no… but she didn't seem to be hiding things when you asked about him the way she avoids questions about her family and home," Tucker reasoned, though even he didn't sound too convinced.

"She knows WHO her dad is, she's just never met him before." It was Sam who answered this question. "It's the way she talks, at least that's what Jazz said."

"When have you discussed this with Jazz?" Danny asked.

"While you spend your first week of vacation with a complete stranger, that's when. Did you really think I was going to say at home all week with my parents?"

"Oh…" was all Danny replied.

"Yeah, 'Oh'. Anyway. Jazz supposes that Lilly knows a lot more then she's letting on."

"What makes her say that?" Tucker asked.

"You'd have to ask Jazz for the more methodical explanation. But she says a girl in Lilly's situation should be far more worried about her parents or parent looking for her, about being stuck with no visible means to communicate with her friends or family. She's too comfortable. Like she's been here before," Sam tried explaining. "Picture that it's you in her shoes. From what we know she has no way to get home, no one she knows whom she can contact, and no idea how she randomly has ghost powers? If that was you, wouldn't you freak out a bit more? Even you, Danny, were more worried when your powers started to develop; and you were at home and with friends."

Silence met her little speech. Danny _was_ thinking about it. When he had woken up after the portal started up with him inside… it had been terrifying. The face that looked back at him from the mirror wasn't one he recognized. Black hair made white. Blue eyes turned glowing green. Not to mention the fact he kept slipping through the floor.

His fear had dropped some when he knew Sam and Tucker weren't running out on him, they stuck around all evening trying to find a way to fix him. When he realized he had no heart beat… now that really scared him.

So, no, he couldn't imagine being as calm as Lilly was appearing to be with all that was happening to her. Granted her appearance hadn't changed (that they knew of) and her heart was beating as well.

"So, no. I don't believe that Vlad could be her dad. Even if Vlad didn't know about her. He's also too hung up on your mom to consider looking at another woman in my opinion," Sam cut through the silence, quieting Danny's internal debate.

That little discussion had calmed Danny's fears, but it still left the question of where on earth (or in the Zone) had this girl come from?

Staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom while he lay there, thinking, he wondered when his life had gotten so complicated and why he wasn't more worried about not being surprised that it was complicated.

Half an hour later he was down in the kitchen with Lilly and Jazz eating the breakfast the Jazz made. Having taken on the role of 'babysitter/caregiver' over the two fourteen-year-olds very seriously. Lilly was currently asking Jazz about this seminar that their parents were at for the week.

"They don't get many of these types of things to go to since most of the country still doesn't believe ghosts exist. Even though Mom and Dad have video evidence of the ghost zone, of ghosts attacking the city and just about everything else, people just aren't willing to believe that any of it is real. They think it's all a hoax. Computer generated or green screened, you know. They pass off Amity Park as a great big tourist trap and throw out any evidence they find came from our town," Jazz went on, dishing out the scrabbled eggs onto three plates.

"But then why do they keep going if they aren't taken seriously?" Lilly asked.

"Dad's very passionate about ghosts, willing to talk anyone's ear off about them. Mom is more scientific and is willing to try and persuade as many people as she can through evidence and experiments. They take a lot of their weapons and work with them. The ectoplasm powered guns and suits, diagrams of the portal and other larger projects," Jazz explained, now sitting down with them at the table. "There are the few people they have convinced who like to see what new things they have created. Information on new ghosts that have come through the portal. Some of the people even come back with them and see the town for themselves. More than once have we hosted some 'ghost tours' of the city for their colleges."

"They've never tried to take a ghost with them? Solid proof that they are real?"

"Well… Now don't get me wrong, Mom and Dad are the best in the field at ecto-energy and everything. They just… aren't very good at actually _catching_ the ghosts they hunt…"

Silence hung in the kitchen for a moment before Danny pipped up. "Also the ghosts they do catch seem to get out before any real harm can be done to them, or before they can be taken out of the town," he explained. _By me…_ he thought to himself.

"So… they are excellent scientist… but crappy ghost hunter?"

Jazz and Danny nodded.

"If they are so bad at it… why not quit?"

This caused Danny and Jazz to laugh. "Mom and Dad? Give up fighting ghosts? I can't think of anything that would cause them to give it up. It's their life's work. Has been since collage, maybe even before," Danny laughed. "Wonder what they might do if they ever did think about quitting…" he pondered thoughtfully, trying to picture his parents in some other type of job.

"Maybe they'd open up a fudge factory?" Jazz laughed. "Or at least, dad might."

Before Lilly could make a comment about this, the door bell rang and Danny was jumping to his feet. "I'll get it, it's probably Sam and Tucker."

Sure enough when he opened the front door his two best friends were standing there. "Hey!" he greeted them.

"Hey," they chorused back.

"Ready to go?" Tucker asked, PDA in hand.

"Yeah, just let me grab my shoes," Danny answered, turning and racing up the stairs to his room.

From the kitchen Lilly and Jazz could be heard still talking about the Doctors' Fenton and their life-long obsession to fight ghosts. Not a second later Danny reappeared, taking the steps three at a time and landing at the bottom without so much as a thump.

"Jazz, I'm going out with Sam and Tucker!" Danny called happily.

"Okay! Call if you need anything!"

"Let's go, dude! Come on!" Tucker was halfway down the stairs.

"Have any idea what you want to do today?" Sam asked, walking down to street level beside Danny.

"Something that doesn't involve ghosts or ghost powers," Danny laughed happily.

"How did you get out of teaching the little liar today anyway?" Sam asked.

Danny ignored this jab at Lilly, having given up on changing her view of the strange girl. "I told her yesterday she should take a day off and rest, that it would help in the long run not to over do it too soon."

"Is that true?" Tucker asked.

"I'm not sure, honestly. If she is exactly like me, then it will help a little bit, but we don't know what she is so…" he let his sentence trail off, no real answer to the question.

"So what do you want to do? Hang at the park? Nasty Burger? Mini Golf?" Sam asked, changing the topic without any warning.

"How about Mini Golf, we haven't been to it since it reopened, maybe they've changed some of the courses."

So the three friends headed off to the golf course that sat on the hills to the east of the town. The treck was a bit far but they occupied themselves with discussing the latest horror movies and the ones that were currently being filmed. The latest in the Nightmerica series was due for release around Halloween later that year.

When they did arrive at the golf course there was a bit of a line to wait in. Apparently they weren't the only ones who hoped for a change of course after the ghost attack. Up at the front of the que were the A-listers and their groupies. Some young couples and parents with younger kids took up the rest of the line.

"Wow, guess we weren't the only ones who thought of the golf course," Danny said, eyeing the long line.

"Well it is one of the few places left that is open," Tucker said, tapping away on his PDA. "You can only visit the Zoo so many times before it gets repetitive."

"Still, there are plenty of other places to go," Danny grumbled.

"Like where?"

"Well there's…" _Nope, Technus attacked the arcade._ "How about…" _Oh… Lunch Lady destroyed the mall food court a few weeks ago, I wonder if its open yet?_ "Well then they can go do…" _No… Box Ghost got the trampoline park too, it's never even been open yet and it's needing repairs…_

"There's mini golf and the park. Face it, ghosts have been a bit too active the past few weeks," Tucker finished for the resident ghostly ghost hunter.

"Do you think we will ever see a drop in ghost attacks," Danny asked, his voice low and pained. Sam and Tucker turned to look at Danny, seeing his face set in defeat and exhaustion.

"Maybe Danny. They'll have to get bored with always being defeated by Phantom eventually," Tucker tried. "Who knows, maybe your parents will shut the portal for good someday."

The look Danny gave Tucker was clearly not what the tech nerd expected to receive.

"That is… keep it shut more often… to not let as many ghosts out…" Tucker tried to repair his apparent blunder.

"What ever happens in the future Danny, we'll always be here to help in every way we can. If that means taping Tuckers mouth shut, I'd be more then happy to help," Sam said, give the boys a sarcastic glare.

Danny smiled at that. "Thanks guys."

"No problem man," Tucker said. "But you're not really going to tape my mouth shut, are you?"

"It's an option," Sam replied, taking a step forward as the line moved an inch.

They waited in line for an hour before it was their turn to grab some golf clubs and a few balls, then they set out onto the mini course. Ahead of them were families with small kids so even though they finally made it to the course, they still had to stand around waiting for the next course to become free to even move on and play. After another hour of this Sam spoke up. "So maybe the golf course wasn't the best idea, we would have been better off playing Doomed all day."

Danny and Tucked nodded in agreement.

"Should we ditch the last few hold and head to the Nasty Burger?" Tucker asked. Watching as the family ahead of them tried in vain to get their youngest child to hold the club the right way.

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

With that decided the three of them returned their clubs and balls and made their way back into town and towards their favorite burger joint.

It was mid-day when they found themselves at the park sitting by the pond watching the ducks and ducklings swim around. Danny was laying on his back, eyes shut and enjoying the sunshine listening to Sam and Tucker continue with their meat vs. no meat argument when their peaceful day was ruined.

"Hey, isn't that Lilly over there?" Tucker asked, pointing across the pond.

Danny sat up and looked in the direction Tuck was pointing to see the black-haired teen wandering along the bike path in the park. "Yeah, so?"

"What do you think she's doing here?"

"Walking?" Danny offered, not too fussed about the appearance of the strange girl.

"Why isn't she at your house with Jazz," Sam grumbled, glaring at her as she rounded a crop of trees and disappeared behind them.

"There is only so much a person can take of Jazz's psychology babble combined with ghost lectures," Danny said. "I'd try to escape too, if I were her."

"Do you think she's looking for you?" Tucker asked.

"Why would she be looking for me?" Danny replied, confused.

"Because it's you she always seems to be watching?" Tucker answered, in a 'how have you not noticed' way.

Sam cut into the conversation, not liking where it was going. "How about we forget about strange girls that appear out of nowhere wanting your attention and head back to my place for that movie marathon we wanted to have?"

But Danny didn't hear a word she said, a cold chill had just worked its way up his spin and out through his mouth. "No…" he mumbled.

"Who are you calling strange?"

Turning around the three of them caught sight of Ember hanging in the hair, her flaming hair alight behind her, arm's crossed.

"What do you want, Ember? I was finally having a day off," Danny groaned, standing up to face the rocker ghost.

"The Zone was getting boring, and you're always available for a little fun, so I thought 'hey, why not' and decided to stop by; so, who were you calling strange?" Ember asked.

"Ghost!"

The four turned to see a small five-year-old girl screaming at the top of her lungs while pointing at Ember.

"Yeah, so," Ember asked, causing the poor girl to run away screaming.

"Great… now everyone's going to know…" Danny grumbled.

"You still haven't answered my question," Ember pointed out.

"Who said we were going to answer in the first place?" Sam retorted.

"What, a girl can't ask a question?"

Danny cut off Sam's retort. "Is there any chance of you leaving without a fight?"

"Come on, baby pop, what fun is that? I came here for some fun, not an afternoon chat."

"I was afraid of that."

"So let's go! I haven't' got all day," the rocker said, grabbing her guitar from behind her.

"Maybe if I don't do anything, she'll just leave…" Danny whispered to Tucker and Sam.

"Not likely dude."

With no further warning, Ember strummed the wires on her guitar and waves of rock music erupted from it. Danny, Sam and Tucker just made it out of the way before the attack hit, exploding the hill beside the lake and causing a wave to crash over the opposite bank.

With the screams of the little girl and now Embers attack, it wasn't long before some braver people came running to see what the commotion was, rather then running away for safety. Most of them were the young people of the city hoping to catch a glimpse of Phantom. Danny recognized more then a few of his own classmates among them.

"Let's get out of here," he called meaningfully to Sam and Tucker. His friends nodded in understanding and the three of them darted into the undergrowth and behind the trees. Meeting up in one of the groove of trees inside the park. "Ready for this, guys?" Danny asked, his face set with determination as Sam and Tucker kept a look out for stray spectators. "Going Ghost!" Danny called out his catchphrase. It wasn't necessary but by now it was a habit that was hard to break.

Rings of light popped in to view around his waist and split. Black turned white and blue turned green as his heart stopped and Danny Phantom appeared. Shooting into the sky, he made his way back over to Ember where the ghost was waiting, patiently blasting craters into the earth and making the spectators scatter like ants.

"About time baby pop! I was beginning to think you'd run away for good!" she called, changing her target to the newly arrived ghost boy.

"You know I never keep a lady waiting. You're not much of a lady but I guess you'll work for now," Phantom called, sending an ecto-blast her way and bringing the fight higher into the air.

"Is that so!" Ember shouted, aiming a blast from her guitar towards him.

"Care to prove me wrong?" Phantom laughed, darting around and avoiding the blasts, getting into the swing and enjoying the battle.

Down on the ground, Sam and Tucker watched helplessly as the two ghosts battled above. "Come on Phantom! You can do it!" Tucker called, running out from beneath the cover of trees.

"Oh look! It's the ghost boy! Yoo hoo! Phantom! It's me! Paulina!" the Latino teen was standing about twenty feet to their left, waving madly at the two ghosts in the air. "He's so handsome!"

"Hey! Where is Danny!"

Sam and Tucker turned to see Lilly running up to them, panting but not too out of breath yet.

"Why are you here?" Sam demanded, still angry at the girl.

"I saw you all run into the trees. Where did Danny go? Is he still in there?" she asked, ignoring Sam's question and continuing on with some of her own. She turned back to the groove. "Danny!?" she called, heading into the trees when no answer came.

"Great, now we got miss nosy around too," Sam grumbled.

"I'll look after her, and make sure she doesn't try and join the fight. That just seems like something she might do," Tucker called, turning to follow Lilly.

"Fine, but I'm staying here, someone's got to make sure Danny doesn't kill himself…. All the way."

Shrugging it off Tucker ran after Lilly, easily tracking her as she crashed through the trees and was still shouting Danny's name. Soon the sounds of the fight faded to the background as the leaf canopy provided a sound block. Green light illuminated the forest, casting shadows across the ground.

"Lilly!" Tucker called, noticing that the girl was getting farther away from him. "Lilly! Come back here!"

"Tucker?!" Lilly's answered back, the sounds of trees moving stopped.

"Come back, you don't want to get lost when there are ghosts around. Skulker could be nearby too!" Tucker called only half truthfully, Ember and Skulker didn't usually attack together.

"But Da-Danny!"

"You won't find him in here, he was going to head home, make sure you and Jazz were there and not in danger," Tucker lied easily, scanning the trees for any sign of Lilly.

"He went home?" Lilly asked. Tucker could hear her making her way back to him.

"Yeah."

Lilly finally appeared around a large oak tree. Tucked sighed in relief. "It's really not a good idea to go running off when there is an attack. You never know where the ghosts will strike. Phantom tends to aim toward uninhabited areas, and this counts in that description."

"Oh, I… I didn't know."

"Let's get back out of here before anything bad starts here and no one knows where to find us," Tucker said, turning back the way he had come.

"Okay," Lilly said, resigned. "But you're sure, sure sure, Danny isn't in here hiding?"

"I'm 100% sure he isn't in here," Tucker said confidently.

As the headed closer to the edge of the tree line, sounds from the fight reached their ears again. Then a scream ripped through the air. A scream Tucker recognized. It turned his blood to ice.

 **DP DP DP**

Danny was having a blast, in a way. There certainly was a blast that had hit him in the shoulder, but that wasn't the point. He had gone three days without a serious ghost fight, and he couldn't deny that he was enjoying himself just a little. The witty banter, the flight, the adrenaline that came in a fight. Each ghost he battled took a slightly different type of stratagem to defeat, each had their own powers and their own goals. And today, Ember's goal appeared to be a good old fashioned beating. She didn't shout about her boyfriends feeling lame or damage to her wonderful (her words) hair or guitar. She just seemed, as she had said, bored.

"That all you got, dipstick?" she shouted.

"I don't need more to defeat you!" Danny cried, raising a shield as she blasted her guitar again.

"Yoo hoo! Phantom!" Paulina called from the ground.

"Look's like I'm not the only one with fans," Ember called, glancing down at the teen.

"Lucky me," Danny grumbled.

"What? Don't you like strange girl showing up out of nowhere and wanting your attention?" she teased, floating to the left, avoiding a blast Danny sent her way.

"Not really," Danny called. "I seem to have enough of them already, I don't need more!"

"Oh right, how could I forget, you have a thing for the Goth chick, don't you?"

Danny was so glad they were too high up for their voices to carry to the ground. Instead he shot another wave of ecto energy at her.

"Well she's down there right now, isn't she? Hoping that you'll get your head out of the clouds and notice her?" Ember called. All but forgetting about the fight the two of them were having.

"What are you talking about?" Danny asked, not really caring, just trying anything to knock her out of the sky.

"You and goth chick, isn't it obvious?"

"Ember, get to the point!"

"You are so clueless," Ember called, shaking her head. "Here you got one girl throwing herself at you and you don't want her, but the girl you do want is throwing herself at you and you ignore her."

"Sam does not throw herself at me," Danny shouted, his gaze flickering down to look between the two girls standing yards below them.

"No? You sure about that?"

"Yes, I'm sure! I think I'd know if that was the case!"

"Then why don't we test that theory?" Ember called and before Danny could responds, had thrown herself towards the ground, stopping between the two living teens.

Paulina shrieked in fear, jumping away from the blue-haired ghost chick. "Phantom! Save me!" she called.

Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes and he flew after Ember, landing between her and Sam, effectively ignoring Paulina.

"Hey girls," Ember called, grinning like a maniac between the two.

"What do you want, Ember?" Sam asked, contempt in her voice.

"Just to prove a point; and have a bit of fun. Well, mostly to have a bit of fun. See Phantom here thinks only one girl here is throwing herself at him, I'd like to prove him wrong," her eyes landing on Sam as she finished her statement.

"Oh really? And how are you going to do that?" Sam asked. All three of them ignoring Paulina trying to get Danny's attention.

"Oh… you remember my guitar's different powers, right? One twist of this nob and I can make anyone do my bidding," Ember replied, motioning to the small switch on her guitar that had once caused Danny to fall madly in love with Sam, or rather _more_ in love with her.

"Ember…" Danny said in warning, "Don't even think about it."

"Oh, but I already have. Say good buy to your free will," Ember shouted, her aim at Paulina who cowered near the pond.

"No!" Danny shouted, leaping into action to push Paulina out of the way. He only just managed to get to the Latino girl in time to realize it was a diversion. Ember had turned her attention to Sam the moment Danny had passed her.

Sam let out a scream as she saw the pink waves rushing towards her, throwing up her arm's in a feeble attempt to protect herself.

Ember's attack might have hit if Danny hadn't thought fast. Rather than construct a shield that would stop the blast and possibly be broken in the process, he created a new shield he'd been working on. This shield, while less powerful, wasn't designed to stop the attack but to redirect it. He raced towards Sam, all his focus on keeping the shield up as wave after wave slammed the shield and bounced back.

He and Ember yelped in shock as it came back at them, both ghosts able to shoot out of the way as the attack reached them and then passed. Unfortunately, the attack did hit a target, just not it's intended target.

Paulina gasped in pain as the waves hit her. Already being on the ground, the girl didn't have far to fall as she slumped forward.

Screams from the onlookers over took the clearing and many began to run, realizing that a living person had been injured, they didn't want to hang around and be the next victim.

But Ember, Sam and Danny stayed where they were, watching the Latino girl groan as she regained consciousness. "Wh…what?"

Her gaze drifted up and locked on to Danny. "Oh Phantom! Have I ever told you have green your eyes are?" her sappy look clouded with a dazed expression.

"Well, this works I guess," Ember said, giggling as she floated into the air. Paulina still on the ground began to crawl towards Danny who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Um… Paulina…? What… what are you doing?" he asked, backing away from the girl as she drew closer.

"Don't you see?" she asked. "You and I were meant for each other. We're both the most popular kids around. Your handsome and I'm gorgeous. We would make the most beautiful children together," she cooed, grabbing his white boots and working her hands up his legs.

"S-stop!" he called, trying to back away only to fall backwards, prompting Paulina to start to crawl on him. A couple of months ago, Danny might have liked this display, but experiencing it now… was disturbing. "Ge-et off!" he tried again. When that didn't work, he turned his body intangible and fell through the ground, rising back up behind Sam, Paulina looking around wildly for him.

"But where did you go Phantom?"

Danny vaguely heard Ember laughing above them, something about 'best thing ever' but he didn't pay attention to her.

"Leave me be, Paulina!" Danny called when the girl had found him and started towards him again.

"Not likely," Sam said, backing away from the Latino girl as well. "Last time I had to break you out of the spell," she reminded him.

"You had to ki…." Danny didn't finish the sentence.

The realization of what needed to be done to break Paulina free of Ember's love spell hit Sam and Danny like a ton of bricks.

Slowly the two turned to look at the other, both their faces turning bright red.

 **DP DP DP**

"Sam!" Lilly cried out in horror and shot forwards. Tucker ran after her, but Lilly had the advantage of now controlling her ghost powers and was making her way by flight and intangibility. Tucker had to make his way out with no added help. Soon Lilly had vanished into the trees again, but Tucker couldn't be sure that she hadn't just gone invisible.

Arriving at the edge of the woods, Tucker paused to scout out the scene. Blindly running onto a battlefield was Danny's job.

A few yards ahead of him stood Lilly, her posture ridged, hands clenched into fists by her side. But what ever she was looking at was hidden from Tuckers' view. Carefully drawing forward, his eyes landed on the scene that, in different circumstances, might have made him laugh.

Paulina stood by the pond, eyes wide in shock and horror at the two in front of her. Ember was laughing her head off in the sky, pounding her fists on imaginary ground as she watched.

There, in the middle of the commotion stood Sam and Danny Phantom. Sam's arms wrapped around Phantom's shoulders, Phantom's around Sam's waist, kissing like there was no tomorrow.

"No," Lilly whispered, Tucker only just making out her words. "Mom… how could you…?" Tucker was sure he had to have heard her wrong. "Why! Why him!? No!"

Then she was turning her back on the scene and bolting down the bike path, leaving a confused Tucker to watch as his two friends untangled themselves from each other and Paulina fell to her knees sobbing.

 _ **Posted 4/15/2019**_

My heart goes out to all who live in Paris and France as they wait in silence for news of the Notre-Dame Cathedral. I visited the Cathedral myself in July 2007, the sheer size of the church is overwhelming. Never would I have imagined I'd see the day it might be destroyed. 800+ years of history should not be able to be destroyed in a few short hours. Prayers for the firefighters who are battling the blaze and those who must now pick up the pieces left behind. #NotreDame

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	22. Chapter 22: Some lovebirds get together

_**Chapter Twenty-Two: Some lovebirds get together**_

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

Tucker gazed open mouthed ahead of him. The scene wasn't too shocking but what he had just overheard, well… surely he'd heard wrong… Right?

Why on earth (or in the Zone) would Lilly call Sam 'Mom'? It was crazy…

His two friends in front of him looked a bit preoccupied with Ember and Paulina; satisfied that they didn't need him, Tucker turned and headed in the direction Lilly had just gone. Unfortunately, he hadn't been watching where she'd headed and was left staring out at the empty expanse of the park, a bit lost on where to go. Shrugging he headed in a random direction, hoping to get lucky.

Twenty minutes of unluckiness later he watched as Phantom flew off in the direction of Fenton Works. A moment later his PDA dinged with a message from Sam explaining that she was heading home too. Tucker didn't mind, he had questions that needed answered.

Another ten minutes and Tucker caught a glimpse of some color under the walking bridge that spanned the lake. Taking a chance, he stumbled down the rocky slope and ducked below the overhang. Sure enough, Lilly sat at the lakes edge, throwing pebbles into the water. He could just make out tear tracks on her face but didn't comment.

"Hey! Found you! What are you doing hiding down here?" Tucker asked, lowering himself down beside her.

"Hi," was her only response.

"I've been looking everywhere for you," he replied. "I told you it's dangerous to run off during a ghost attack."

"Is it over now?" she asked, though she didn't seem that interested.

"Is what over?"

"The ghost attack."

"Oh, oh yeah. Phantom took care of Ember and headed off. I missed the ending but I saw him fly off," Tucker explained, watching Lilly carefully. Her fists clenched at the sound of Phantom's name and a hard look entered her eyes.

"And Sam? Where is she?" her voice was bitter.

"She texted, said she headed home, why?"

"Why would she do that with a _ghost_? Did you see? She… she _kissed it_!" Lilly gagged, looking ready to vomit.

"Sam did? Kissed Phantom you mean?"

Lilly could only nod.

"Maybe she was breaking a spell that Ember cast?" Tucker guessed, more watching for Lilly's reaction.

"Breaking a spell? What do you mean?" Lilly asked, confused, slightly hopeful but still upset.

"Well... When Ember first came to Amity she was using her guitar to cast a spell on the people listening to her music," Tucker explained. "She was making anyone who listened to her obsessed with her and her music to make herself stronger. I was under the spell too so I don't know all the details but from what I was told and saw, Ember cast a different type of spell on Danny, making him head over heals for Sam. It was kinda funny to watch after Sam 'reprogramed' me, he was so delusional. But Sam ended up having to kiss some jock to get Danny to break out of the spell," Tucker explained. He was sure he was doing a horrible job explaining what happened but he couldn't help laughing at the memory of Danny's lovesick face. "I wish I would have gotten a picture," he snickered.

"Of Sam kissing a jock?" Lilly looked disgusted.

"What? No! Of Danny acting like a lovesick puppy around Sam. He refused to admit it ever happened, but I know the truth. No, Sam was horrified at having to kiss Dash," Tucker replied.

"She didn't look horrified today, kissing a _ghost_ ," she whispered to herself.

Tucker waited for her to talk again, maybe ask a new question but as the moment stretched into minutes he wondered if she would ever talk without him prompting her.

"Um… Lilly… what was it you called Sam when you saw her kissing Phantom? I swore I heard you wrong," Tucker asked, pretending it didn't really matter if she answered.

"What?" Lilly gasped. "I-I didn't call her anything."

Lilly's sudden defensive nature was shocking and yet Tucker almost expected it. She was back to hiding something, he was sure of it.

"No? I could have sworn you called her 'Mom'."

Lilly stiffened.

"But I must need my ears cleaned out because that impossible. What on earth would make you call Sam 'Mom' anyway."

"I wouldn't. Why on earth would I call her 'Mom', she isn't my mother! That's insane!" she shouted, making some ducks take flight off the lake's surface.

"So… why did you call her 'Mom'?" Tucker asked, his voice gentler than he thought it could go.

 **DP DP DP**

Abbi's heart clenched. What was she supposed to do? She had just seen her mother kissing a ghost! Kissing the same ghost that was the beginning of the reason she was stuck 20 years in the past in the first place. And what about being stuck here too? And not telling anyone who she was? Was this when she should give it up? She had been here for seven days already and still had no idea how to get back home. She wasn't any closer to finding a way home then to figuring out where her powers truly came from. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

She desperately wanted a way home. Sure it was fun living with her father and getting to know him… but deep deep down even she could admit this isn't how she wanted to get to know him.

But to just give up? Tell Tucker? What could Tucker do? She doubted he had some secret time traveling machine he could lend her. It was utterly reduculous to let any of them know. She could make it so she would never be born!

But… wouldn't… if that was the case, mean she would already not exist? Was the mere fact that she was still here proof that she would still be born in six years time? If her coming here meant she wouldn't be born would she vanish from this time too or keep living on… Would she be forced to watch her parents marry and have kids that weren't her? Marry someone other than each other? _Why did I ever make that wish in the first place?!_ She groaned, dropping her head to hear knees. _This is so confusing!_

"Lilly?" Tucker asked, worry in his voice.

"My name's not Lilly!" she said at last, _No turning back…_

"Um… okay…" now he sounded confused.

Abbi peeked at him from the corner of her eye, his gaze was on her, waiting for an explanation. She turned forward, not looking at Tucker as she spoke. "I called her mom… because… because Samantha Manson is – because Samantha _Fenton_ ," she paused. "Is. My. Mom."

Silence came from beside her. She peeked at Tucker to see his eyes wide, jaw just a bit dropped down. When it became clear Tucker wasn't going to speak anytime soon, she turned away to keep talking.

"My name is Abigail Fenton and I'll be born in six years or so. I go by Abbi," she explained.

Beside her she heard Tucker swallow before he croaked out. "The name 'Lilly'?"

She was confused on why this mattered but answered anyway. "My middle name is Lilith. Mom's choice I was told."

This made Tucker give a small hysterical giggle that did not suit him at all. "You… you really… wow…" Tucker paused before busting out laughing. "I _knew_ they'd get together! I just knew it! Those two lovebirds are so blind! I wonder who figures it out first! Oh I hope I get to see it! Oh! I'm upping my bet with the nerds at school! I'll be rich some day! Hah!"

This turn of events confused Abbi greatly. Watching as Tucker practically rolled on the rocky shore in laughter, crowing about how long the kids at school had been betting on her parent's eventual relationship. She heard something about 'even when he was dating Valery, we still thought…' but didn't get the reference. She didn't know anyone named Valery in the future. She could only watch as Tucker slowly calmed himself down, which took a considerable amount of time if she was being honest. But he was finally able to turn to her and look at her without giggling.

"That's why you look so much like Danny," Tucker said, looking at Abbi with new eyes, examining her face. "Hah! I can totally see it now."

Blushing, Abbi nodded. "Everyone always said I looked like my father…"

As Tucker watched Abbi however, his expression turned from amusement to confusion.

"But… if you are Sam and Danny's daughter… why do you hate Phantom so much?" he paused. "And why did you know nothing about ghosts?!"

 _ **Posted 4/25/19**_

This chapter was really hard on me. I scrapped 500 words on it and went a different direction, not liking how it was going. Maybe I can work those words into the next chapter but this was a good stopping point and so here you go. Hope it satisfied you. I was really hating it at first but now it's okay I think.

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	23. Chapter 23: No Ghosts? None? Really?

**_Chapter Twenty-Three: No Ghosts? None? Really?_**

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

"Amity Park isn't plagued by ghosts in twenty years…" Abbi explained. "I don't know a single person who believes in ghosts or acts like they are something to fear. Sure my mom believes in the supernatural and stuff but it's still just… was just stories I thought…. She never talked about fighting ghosts when you were all teenagers or nothing."

"So the Dr.'s Fenton, your grandparents, never told you about ghosts? I find that hard to believe," Tucker asked.

"I've never met my grandparents. Not my dad's parents. The few times I visited my mom's parents… it ended up with fighting… we stopped going when I was really young," Abbi explained. "It's just my mom, you, Jazz and me…"

Silence rained down hard on the two after that announcement. Abbi know Tucker was trying to figure out exactly what she meant, and she didn't really want to explain what was never fully explained to her.

Tucker was halving a bit of a flashback to earlier that morning when Sam mentioned something about Lilly- Abbi- knowing who her father was just having never met him. He didn't want to ask the next question but he needed to know.

"Abbi… is Danny… dead in the future?"

When Abbi didn't answer right away, Tucker's heart broke in his chest.

"He isn't dead…" Abbi answered slowly. "But I've… never met him…"

Tucker's heart rose and then fell as she kept speaking.

"See… mom keeps saying he's away on business and working. I know he's come home before but he always _always_ leaves before I can even see him…. There are pictures of him at my birth and my first birthday… but after that…" she didn't finish the sentence. "Mom tells me stories about him… when you were younger and when they were first married. None involved ghosts though…. Just normal teenage rebellion stories and whatnot."

Abbi sighed. "The kids at school say he's a lowlife for leaving my mom when I was so little and not supporting her. My grandparents think he's the scum of the earth. Jazz, mom and you tell me he's brave and kind and the best man they've ever met. But is he's so great… why'd he leave…?"

Silence reigned again after her question. A fear was growing inside Tucker. The way Abbi talked… it almost sounded like Danny _was_ dead and a resident of the ghost zone. That would explain the fact that he could visit but was never around. Never showed himself to Abbi. But why hide ghosts from the girl? If he was able to visit as a ghost, why hide from her? And why were there no ghosts in the future? What had happened between now and Abbi's birth that changed the town so much? And if Abbi didn't know about ghosts, if they hid Danny's ghost form from her… how does she know of Phantom?

"I can't speak for the Danny of the future… but the Danny I know would never leave Sam if there was a way around it. If he could find a way to stay by Sam's side he would never have left. I don't know what's happened but I'm sure… it wasn't his choice to leave."

Tucker chose to ignore the sniffling sound from beside him. "But Abbi, if there are no ghosts in the Amity Park of your time… how do you know who Phantom is? He's a ghost…"

Tucker noticed the change in Abbi's posture when he brought up Phantom. Her fists clenched and her eyes hardened like Danny's would when he faced off against Vlad.

"That ghost," Abbi bit in discussed. "I know he seems all kind and good now but the morning I ended up here, before I got sent back here, _he_ showed up in my house. He was in the kitchen with my mother, _seducing_ her. Then he _kissed_ her! And she kissed him _back_! I don't know what he want's with my mother but I'll keep her safe from him if it's the last thing I do!"

For a third time, silence fell between them. But this time it wasn't broken hard questions or comforting words. But by Tucker bursting out laughing, holding his gut as he lost his balance and rolled onto his side.

Abbi's anger desulved into shock as she watched her 'Uncle' laughing at this proclamation. Horrified by his betrayal. "I mean it! I'll stop him!" she shouted.

"It's-it's not that!" Tucker coughed. "I'm not—laughing—at you."

It sure looked like he was.

Doing his best to calm his hysteria, Tucker took some deep breaths amid still more laughing. Finally, he was able to look at Abbi without breaking out in giggles. (Very un-manly giggles)

"It's just…" but he paused, looking Abbi in the eye and realizing… this wasn't his secret to tell. He opened and shut his mouth a few times making Abbi give him first an expectant look then a worried look. Probably fearing for his sanity if she was anything like her mother. Finally he settled for a few choice words. "I think we need to go talk with Sam and Danny—"

"What? Why!? We can't tell them who I am!"

Just then Tucker's PDA chimed. Pulling it out of his pocket he opened the text.

"Danny and Jazz are wondering where you are, did you lose your phone?" Tucker asked, turning to her as he responded to Danny, letting him know 'Lilly' was with him.

"Danny is?" Abbi asked, pulling her phone out of her pocket. She opened her texts to see she'd missed quite a few from Jazz but more from Danny. "Oh… it's on silent, I didn't realize I'd done that. Stupid old-school flip phone." Tucker watched as she struggled to write a message, becoming more fed up with the 11 little buttons on the device with each word she spelled out.

This one comment froze Tuckers train of thought.

Abbi was from the future.

Abbi thought this technology was bad.

The future had new technology.

"What's the tech like in the future?!" Tucker shouted, stars in his eyes, his hands gripping Abbi's upper arms.

"Wa…what? The tech? It's… um…," Abbi stopped, how much could she say? "Better…"

Clearly this wasn't enough of an answer for the tech nerd and he started off on a long list of questions about flying cars, mind reading machines and robots controlling… just about everything.

"Um… Tucker… none of that stuff is in the future…" she answered when he paused to take a breath.

The stars in his eyes shattered to pieces and his head fell forward.

"Not even simple robots?" he asked.

"Not really, they are working on them but it's not going to be like what you imagine. Really, they are probably a few years if not decades away." Tucker looked like she had just shot his new puppy. "Um… well we are getting closer to self-driving cars…, and we have watches that double as cell phones?"

This at least got Tucker excited again. While it wasn't mind reading robots, it was still better then nothing! "So, if they don't have flip phones what do they have?" he asked.

"Smart phones. No buttons, and most have fingerprint recognition," she answered, glaring down at the phone in her hand.

"No buttons?"

"Buttons are over rated," was her only reply.

"How else would we use it?"

"Touch screens, duh," Lilly answered absently, finally finishing her message and sending it off.

"Touch screens?" Tucker asked, excitement mounting again.

"But that's all I'm saying! I've probably said too much as it is! Who knows what you could end up changing by knowing what I just told you!"

Tucker's face fell but he resigned himself to Abbi's words. "Just one more question?"

Sighing, Abbi nodded.

"What is my job in the future? Where do I work?"

"Nope! Not happening!"

"Oh come on!"

 _ **Posted 5/15/2018**_

Welcoming my new 'niece' into the world! My best friend Lita has had her baby girl! Congratulations! (Insert confetti emoji here)

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	24. Chapter 24: What do you know!

So sorry about the way too long wait on this chapter, I didn't want to make you wait any longer so random update today.

This chapter is going back a few days in the future since it's been a while since we saw the grown up Team Phantom. Whenever I post again I'll move this chapter so it's in the right spot but for now it will be here so you can find it. We are winding down now. Only a few more things needing to happen. My brain says four chapters to go to give you an idea. So, on with the story.

 _ **Chapter Twenty-Four: What do you know!?**_

 _Monday, June 11th 2018_

Phantom phased through the house until he found Sam sitting in her greenhouse, the watering can beside her was still half full.

"Sam?" Phantom asked, touching down beside his wife.

Sam gave a little jump as Phantom brought her out of her thoughts. "Oh, Danny, hey, I didn't expect you back so soon…" she said, turning to him. The smile on her face lasted only a moment. "You aren't bringing good news…?"

Phantom shook his head. "I'm afraid not. Clockwork doesn't know where she is in the time stream and he can't bring her back either."

Sam's shoulders fell. "So, Desiree can't help and Clockwork can't help. Do you think the Infimap would help?"

Phantom shook his head. "No, I just came from visiting Frostbite. He let me try and use it, but it only glowed for a moment, that was it. Even Frostbite was confused."

"Maybe it's what Desiree said. About going to a time that you already exist in," Sam murmured.

Phantom didn't give an answer, only shrugging his shoulders. He bent down and picked up the forgotten watering can to continue what Sam had started. Soon enough the plants were all watered, and Phantom was leading Sam back inside the large manor.

"Would you like something to drink?" Sam asked once they were in the kitchen.

"Water is fine," Phantom replied, taking a seat at the small kitchen table.

Sam moved about the kitchen, gathering supplies to make some tea as well as getting the glass of water for the ghost king. It wasn't long before the two were sitting at the table and talking quietly when the doorbell rang. Sam stood up and headed to the front door, she glanced back at the table and saw that Phantom and his glass of water had vanished from sight. Nodding she went ahead and answered the door right as it rang again.

"Oh! Sam, I wasn't sure if you would be in the greenhouse, if you'd hear the bell," Tucker explained, giving a small smile to his longtime friend.

"Hey, Tuck, come on in. I have tea if you want any," Sam greeted him, shutting the door and leading him back to the still empty kitchen.

"Thanks, but I'll pass on the tea," Tucker replied. "Has Danny come to see you yet? Any new news from the other side?"

Sam was about to reply when the tea kettle on the stove started to whistle. "Have a seat," she said, distracted from Tuckers questions. Picking up the kettle she poured the boiling water into a mug before adding in some homegrown herbs.

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!"

Jumping a foot in the air, Sam spun around, heart beating fast, to see Tucker on the floor of the kitchen and Phantom fading back into sight at the table, laughing. Glaring between the two boys, Sam turned to pick up her mug of tea.

"You two will send me to an early grave, I tell you," she said, ignoring the grown men who began a bickering match about 'sitting in a chair invisibly to scare people' and 'sitting in a chair that happens to already be occupied by said invisible person'. It was like being back in high school all over again.

Sam calmly sat down at the third unoccupied chair with her hot tea, blowing on it as the argument progressed into farther and farther far-fetched schemes the invisibility could be used for.

"Are we 34 or 14, guys? Really, guys, didn't you have this discussion twenty times a summer back in high school?" Sam asked, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, so?" Phantom and Tucker said in unison, turning to look at Sam. She just shook her head.

"Besides, now we have a new 'ghost' to train, well… sorta…" Tucker replied.

"What do you mean?" Phantom asked.

"Well, Abbi, once she comes home, whenever that is, she will need to be taught about her powers, you know? You don't want her going through what you went through in high school, and she will have no friends who know what's happening to be able to help her out or hide any mishaps," Tucker explained.

"You got a point there…" Phantom agreed slowly. "At least she won't have to fly off and fight any ghosts that come to call. And if they so much as start it… well… I haven't had to use Walker recently but I'm sure the cranky old ghost wouldn't mind some new prisoners to torture."

Sam was nodding to his comment until he reached the 'torture' detail. "Danny!"

"What?" he asked, looking surprised until he caught her meaning. "Not bad torture! Just the usual jail time and ankles with the ball and chain things, you know," he explained. "You know I wouldn't allow actual torture in any jail I run, or… well, I don't run it personally, but you get the point."

Tucker hid his snickering behind a cough.

"Well… back to the training bit," Tucker tried redirecting the conversation. "What powers do you think she can develop? She is the first of her breed. So to speak…"

"She showed ecto-manipulation in front of Sam and I, but she could develop any of the normal ghost powers as well as some specific to her. She might get them all at once or develop some over time as I did. Like you said, she is a first, so anything could happen.

"Do you suppose Sam's short time with plant-based power will affect her?" Tucker wondered aloud.

"It's possible," Phantom replied but his voice was skeptic. "Sam was around ecto-energy for most of her life. It could have gone as far as keeping the plant-based power alive in her long enough to be transferred over to Abbi; but Sam has never shown any ecto-power since that day so it could have left her completely, leaving Abbi unaffected which is more likely. I never tested Sam's blood, but I doubt I could find any traces of ecto in them anyway."

Tucker nodded. "Yeah, I've been possessed too but never shown any power after or felt anything like you would describe. So it goes to reason that only your ghost power will influence her developing power."

Phantom nodded his agreement, his eyes drifting out of focus as the three of them fell back into their thoughts. Ever so slowly the glass of water Phantom was absentmindedly swirling in his hands began to fog up as the water inside turned to ice. Sam and Tucker took notice of the phenomenon as the air around them began to cool down.

"Hey, ah… dude? Do you mind turning off the air conditioning? Or turn it up just a bit? I didn't dress for blizzard weather," Tucker said, laughing as Phantom took a look around.

"Oh no, sorry guys!" Phantom cried, reigning back in his ice powers. "I don't always notice… In the Zone it's not that big a deal. Dani has an ice core and if I am doing some thinking, it's in the study with no ghosts around…"

"It's okay Danny, we get it," Sam said, reaching over and taking his hand in hers. "We normally have more interesting things to do when you get to come around."

"Hey, um… guys? Mind keeping that out of the conversation, if you could," Tucker asked.

"What?" Sam and Phantom asked, confused as they looked at Tucker, until catching onto what he meant.

"Tucker! Really?" Phantom groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Boy! That's all that's ever on your minds!" Sam cried, throwing her hands up. "I feel sorry for the girl who marries you!"

"Hey! Rude…" Tucker pouted.

"You and Valery hit another rough patch?" Phantom asked, consolingly.

"Let's not discuss me and Val," Tucker grumbled.

"What-"

A knock sounded at the door again.

"Busy joint," Phantom said, vanishing again as Sam went to answer it.

"Hopefully its someone with more of a brain than you two," Sam shouted back. She got her wish. "Jazz, hey," Sam greeted her sister-in-law.

"Hi, Sam, how are you holding up?" Jazz asked, refraining from giving the goth a hug.

"As good as I can, anyway…" Sam replied, leading her guest back to the kitchen.

"Oh, hi Tucker, how-"

BEEP BEEP BEEP.

All four turned to look at a small watch strapped to Jazz's wrist. Jazz was the most confused on them all. "It says there's a ghost nearby…? I forgot it even did that…"

"You have a ghost scanner on your watch?" Phantom asked, popping back into the visible field.

"Holy Ghost! Danny! Don't scare me like that!" Jazz gasped, her hand over her heart.

"Why is everyone screaming when they see me? You all know who I am…" Phantom mumbled without any threat behind it.

"Because, little brother, you normally are governing a different world and can't come around so much. Actually, you have been around a lot more recently than usual," Jazz mentioned, taking the last empty seat at the kitchen table.

"Well when your daughter is stuck in a different time, one tends to want to know if she has shown back up yet. Can't really do that when I'm in the Zone. And with Abbi not being around to try and hid from, it's easier to be around." Phantom said the last sentence much quieter, but the friends still heard it.

Sam reached over and held his hand again. "You won't have to hid anymore though. She has ghost powers; we can tell her all about the Zone now. You can come by as often as you can. Who knows we might even be able to come visit you sometimes?"

"Dani would love that," Phantom said, a small smile on his lips.

"Can you imagine? So many Phantoms! What if Abbi has her own Phantom form? That would be cool," Tucker said, trying to imagine what it might look like. "Can't be long now, she's been gone for what? Five days?"

"Six days, Tucker," Sam said, giving her dark-skinned friend an odd look.

"Really? I could have sworn it was five…"

"I think I know how long my daughter has been missing the time stream, thanks," Sam hissed.

"Okay, sorry, my bad…" Tucker had the forethought to look ashamed.

"Would Abbi have a Phantom form? She isn't full ghost, or even half ghost. As seeing as how she didn't die in a hazmat suit, why would she have a second form?" Jazz asked.

Phantom shrugged his shoulders. "No idea. She is technically a quarter ghost, now that she has woken up the ecto blood in her she could develop a form that is ecto dominant but it's all just speculation at this point. It also might take time for such form to be available since she will have much less ecto blood in her then Dani and myself. I could test her blood, I probably should test it, it would help with my research," Phantom's voice faded off as he ran over the different experiments, he might put her blood through and what he might learn from it. The last blood sample he'd gotten from Abbi was when she was one year old.

"What are you _doing_ Tucker?" Sam barked, having not taken her eyes off him since his earlier comment.

"What? Nothing! I'm not doing anything!"

"Bull! You keep hiding something! You've been acting odd ever since Abbi went missing and the way you talk, it's like you don't even care! Like you aren't worried about her or anything!" Sam shouted.

"Of course I care about her! How could you think I don't care about my little niece!" Tucker shouted back, offended at Sam's outcry.

"Then why do you look like you've slept fine all these nights. Why aren't you nervously bouncing your knee or pacing the kitchen. Or looking at the door and glancing at the attic like she might just pop back up any moment?"

"Um…"

At that moment it was Phantom and Jazz who took a closer look at Tucker and noticed exactly what it was that Sam meant. Phantom, unknowingly, was bouncing his leg under the table making it shake just a hair. Jazz looked like she could use a large mug of coffee and maybe a shower. And Sam, for all her acting, had probably been doing that last bit since the day Abbi vanished. Tucker looked like he just slept on the most comfortable bed all night and for a solid eight hours or more. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, so to speak.

Now, however, he was looking at the three of them with nervous laugh and eyeing the hallway like it was his only saving grace.

"What aren't you telling us, Tucker!" Sam shouted, pounding the table and standing up. Her calm act long gone. She was a grieving mother and he wasn't telling her everything.

Sighing, Tucker hung his head. "I… um… Well… Okay, Abbi will be back, she'll show up a few days from now, at the park… I was coming up with a plan to get us all there when she's due back, not that the plan was coming along very well anyway."

"How… how do you know this Tuck?" Phantom asked, gazing in shock at his best bud.

"Because… I remember when she shows up… I remember meeting her… twenty years ago…"

You could hear a pin drip. Seconds turned into years until Sam got her voice back. "What?"

"I remember meeting Abbi and hanging out with the odd girl with ghost powers who looked a lot like Danny," Tucker tried explaining.

"Dani," Phantom murmured.

"No, this was after Dani showed up. And Abbi stayed for a week with you and Jazz while your parents were at a ghost convention and we tried to find her parents…" Tucker explained.

"Lilly…." Jazz murmured, her eyes going wide as saucers.

Tucker nodded. "Yeah."

"Wait, what? Lilly? Who's Lilly?" Phantom asked, bewildered.

"She was a little girl who appeared one day," Jazz explained, her voice thoughtful. "She had a big hatred towards Phantom until she learned that Danny was Phantom and you guys were… were trying to get her home!"

Phantom and Sam were now looking between both Jazz and Tucker, becoming more confused by the moment. "I… still don't understand."

Tucker sighed. "Abbi came one summer after you gained your ghost powers, she had her own ghost powers and didn't know where they came from or what ghosts even were when she first came. We taught her what we could at first but then Phantom kind of… took her under his wing, showed her some of the basics of ghost powers… she put her hatred for Phantom aside to learn about the ghost powers she couldn't control."

"Yeah, I remember her now, why did I forget about her though? And why did Danny and Sam forget too?"

"After she found her way home… I never brought her up, I told you not to ask. I guess after a while it just left your memory since you never knew her significance. But… but I did. I got her to tell me who she was and what was going on after a few days… She told me who she was, who her parents were and what happened for her to hate Phantom. In turn, I convinced you to tell her that you and Phantom were the same guy and then we were able to find her a way home."

"She… hated me?" Phantom asked, quietly.

"Well, you'd hate the guy you found seducing your mother in your kitchen too if you didn't know it was your father in his ghost form," Tucker smirked. "Man, I've waited twenty years to say that!"

Phantom and Sam just stared at Tucker and Jazz who, after a few moments, also broke into silent giggles.

"You remember this, Jazz?" Sam asked, half confused, half hopeful.

"I… well, yeah, it's a bit like a dream coming back, now that I remember parts of it, it's all coming back," she said, thoughtfully. "I found the four of you all down in the lab. Lilly, er, Abbi, was covered in ectoplasm. She ended up staying with us for about a week I think, learning about ghosts and her ghost powers. Then one day she vanished. Tucker said she went home, and it was better not to bring it up again… I never knew why. I can't believe I met my niece when I was sixteen…"

"But… why don't Sam and I remember meeting her?" Phantom asked, looking back at Tucker.

But Tucker shook his head. "Let Abbi tell you her story when she gets back. She will have plenty of questions for you too, I'm sure," he smiled.

"How come you never brought this up before?" Phantom asked, getting angry. "Why didn't you tell us our daughter would develop ghost powers? That I didn't have to hid myself from her all this time because we were worried, I'd bring out these dormant powers she wouldn't be able to control? Why didn't you warn us to keep a closer eye on her and on Desiree? Why!?"

"Because, dude, I couldn't be sure if it would all still happen!" Tucker shouted back, getting Phantom to stop his rant. "I wasn't sure the timeline would develop the same way now that I knew Abbi. What if I changed something and it went wrong? What if I told you all this and it went completely differently? What if then she never did develop power, or something might go wrong and she end up dying, or you dying or Sam dying? Clockwork couldn't see her future! I certainly wasn't going to try and change anything!" he cried, trying to get them to understand.

"Each time I was hopeful. You two got married and had a great year, you were going to have a baby! I was certain that whatever happened in her past had been changed. I didn't know what was going to cause you to leave Sam and Abbi behind, what could I have done to changed it? Then you tell us you're the Ghost King and you can't stay with Sam. I was devastated. I knew she didn't ever meet the Dr. Fenton's. Surely something went wrong when Danny told them about being Phantom, but I didn't know what."

"What if I advised you on how to tell them and then they left you and you felt I was responsible and ditched me? What if I told you how to tell them and they killed you when you revealed yourself? How could I have advised you on how to tell them when I didn't know what would make them leave in the first place? The hours I thought over everything I could do to help, to make it okay. But I knew, in the end, that Abbi would grow up okay, with a happy home even if Danny wasn't around. I knew once she would get back to her time that she could have some kind of relationship with her father because she had seen him that day with Sam. I had to hope that saying nothing wouldn't change what would happen. Time travel sucks, dude. After all these years that's the one thing I'm certain about. Time travel sucks."

Tucker ended his story, leaving the room in silence. The other three letting his words sink in. Phantom and Sam knew the dangers of time travel, having been worrying about it all week and then having experienced it before with the Infimap and CAT test debacle. Neither good references.

What could they have done? What could have changed in the past to make the future better? Phantom hadn't become Dan, what if Tucker said something and Dan did come to be? What if one of his other fears came true? Abbi dying? Phantom dying? Then the whole point of him being the Ghost King would have been for not, the Zone would be without a king yet again and would spiral into chaos anyway.

What if Tucker did say something and Sam and Danny decided never to have a child? What would have become of Sam without Abbi around to ground her? Would she have gone to live in the Zone with Danny? Become the Queen the Zone saw her as? Would that have caused problems for the Zone? Or for Sam, being a living being in the realm of the dead for too long?

"You can't beat myself up anymore then I already have over these years about the _what ifs_. But it's come to pass, no changing it anymore. What happens from here on out is anyone's guess. Well, except maybe Clockwork. Maybe once she's back here the future will be revealed to him. Not that he'd tell us."

"Well," Phantom began after more silent pondering. "At least we know she will make it back home okay. You said a few days, Tucker?"

"Wednesday night, at the fountain in the park. The exact time escapes me, but it was after sunset," Tucker answered, nodding.

"Then we just have to wait," Phantom replied. "We're almost there already." Phantom turned to look at Sam. "She'll be back home before you know it."

Silent tears were falling down Sam's face.

"Why the tears? This is good news!" Phantom asked.

Sam could only nod and bury her head in his chest. Phantom smiled, holding Sam tightly.

"Before you know it, she'll be back home, Sammy, just wait, I'm sure she'll have quite the story for us."

 _ **Posted 7/28/19**_ (The date is funny because I wrote this chapter later on in the story but had to put it in chronologically)

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	25. Chapter 25: You should tell her, Danny

_**Chapter Twenty-Five: You should tell her, Danny**_

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

"You sure you can't tell me anything?" Tucker tried one more time before they reached the front door of Fenton Works.

"No, Tuck, I can't, and even if I could I wouldn't. Now mind telling me why it's so important that we go see Danny and Sam?" Abbi tried her own question for the hundredth time.

"Nope, not yet at least," Tucker sighed, climbing the steps and knocking on the door.

In no time the door was flung open and Danny and Jazz both stood there, worry on their faces. Sam was in the background looking grumpy.

"Lilly!" Jazz shouted, pulling the smaller girl into a tight hug. "We were so worried! What if something had happened to you?"

"I could have defended myself, I've been practicing, you know," Abbi groaned, Jazz was just as overprotective as a teen as she was as an aunt.

"Practicing and fighting off Ember are two very different things," Jazz reasoned, loosening her hold on the girl. "But you're safe now, just please keep your phone off silent from now on? Kay?"

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Abbi said, pulling all the way out of Jazz's arms. She looked over at Tucker.

At her gaze Tucker's eyes widened. "Right, um, Danny, Sam, could I talk to you for a few minutes? Alone? They we can come right back."

Abbi glared at him, but she couldn't do much as Sam and Danny agreed rather hesitantly before Danny headed to the stairs,

"Um… maybe in the lab would be better?" he asked, "I need to… um… look something up…"

Abbi could see through the lie in a second. She was sure the other three could too, but Danny just shrugged and changed course to the kitchen instead.

"Mind keeping an eye on A-Lilly! Jazz?" Tucker asked, his voice squeaking as he almost said her real name.

"Okay…" Jazz nodded, giving the trio a puzzled look as the vanished from view. "Any idea what that was about?" she asked Lilly.

"Not really, honestly," Abbi replied. If Tucker said they should talk to Danny and Sam… why take them away? Did he plan on telling them who she was?!

The door to the basement shut and muffled footsteps faded away to nothing, leaving Abbi alone with Jazz and her thoughts.

 **DP DP DP**

"Tucker, what is this all about?" Sam asked as they reached the lab.

"Shhh," Tucker said, looking to Danny before whispering, "Her powers, does she have super hearing? Can she hear what we are saying right now?"

Danny's eyes widened. "I don't know if she has hearing yet, but even I wouldn't be able to hear us clear down here with the lab door shut."

"Good, I don't want her hearing what I need to tell you… well… um… I can't really tell you what I know, but I know a bit more about her now after we talked. But most importantly, she told me why she hates Phantom."

"Really? What was it? What did I do?" Danny asked, shocked.

"It's not really… something you did… sorta… well…" Tucker stuttered. How was he going to explain this without explaining…this?

"Wow, that's helpful," Sam snorted. "Explains everything, that did."

"No… guys, it's just, hard to explain why she hates Phantom without explaining her whole situation. And if we, me and Lilly, can help it, it's best no one else knows her story," he tried to explain, feeling like he was doing a poor job of it. "But… what needs to happen… you need to tell her that you are Phantom. That Danny and Phantom are the same person and not two separate people."

Silence reigned over the lab for a solid minute.

"What?" Sam deadpanned before, "You can't be serious!" she shouted.

"Why would I tell her that?" Danny gasped. "What would that solve?"

"Look, guys, she saw Phantom do something that if she realized it was actually Danny who did it… then she wouldn't be upset anymore. And maybe we could all get closer to finding a way to get her home. And I think the first thing we need to do after you tell her is to take her to see Clockwork," Tucker explained, hoping the Clockwork comment would keep them off the 'what Phantom/Danny did' comment. In a way it did. Neither of his friends said anything to that for another minute.

"Tell her I'm Phantom and take her to meet the ghost of time? What on earth did Phantom do that Danny is allowed to do but Phantom can't?" Danny asked. "Did that even make sense?"

"Yes, Clockwork. I think he's the best bet we have to getting her home quickly." Tucker explained. Ignoring Danny's other questions.

"So where is her home?" Sam asked. "Clockwork rules over time. But as far as we know only our timeline exists, the others are only possibilities. So… what… she's from a different time then us? The past? Or the future?"

"What? No, that's impossible!" Tucker shouted.

"Tuck… we went to the Salem Witch Trials, Ancient Rome and an apocalyptic future thanks to good old Danny. Don't play us for fools," Sam hissed.

"She… is she from the future?" Danny asked, fear entering his eyes. "Do I still…?"

"What? No, you don't! No! You're good Danny, you don't go evil at all! I promise!" Tucker shouted, glad he could tell Danny that much.

"So, she is from the future?" Sam asked.

"Did I say that?" Tucker squeaked again.

"How far in the future are we talking?"

"How far…?" Tucker gulped before his brain kicked. "Just a couple years, she didn't give me a time," he said, looking off to the side as if ashamed of telling them this.

"Are we… friends in the future?" Sam asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Y-yeah… look, if she knew I told you this she would be really upset! We… meet her after high school from what I could pick up from what she told me but that's all I'm saying," Tucker said defiantly.

"So… sometime in the future, Phantom makes her mad? And she came back here to get back at me?" Danny asked confused.

"She never said how she come to be back here or why, all I know is… she saw Phantom interacting with someone in a way a… ghost… shouldn't," he said slowly. "And it got her mad, like really mad. Mad enough to kickstart some dormant powers. She's not even sure where they come from still but maybe once she gets sent back, she can find out and someday we will know too… just not today… Please guys?"

"And you believe her?" Sam asked, incredulously.

"Yes, she told me things only a friend of ours could know. I think…" Tucker paused, starting to worry that he was pushing his luck.

"What?" Danny asked.

"I think you were close to telling her the truth in the future," Tucker fabricated, looking Danny in the eyes.

The halfa's eyes widened, shocked that it was possible he would ever tell anyone else his secret. He's gaze shifted to Sam, looking her. "What do you think?"

She looked about as shocked as he did. All she did was slowly shake her head and shrug her shoulders. Danny nodded, feeling about the same. He took a seat at one of his parents work desks, elbows on his knees, gazing into his hands.

"How would I even tell her, Tuck? What could possible make her believe that a human can be half ghost?"

"Danny… are you forgetting she has ghost powers herself? I think she'd believe you with a little explaining," Tucker laughed. This at least made Danny smile.

 **DP DP DP**

"Did you miss us?" Tucker asked, leaving the lab and kitchen to find Abbi and Jazz talking about old ghost attacks they had yet to discuss. Gazing at the two side by side, knowing now what he did, he could see the resemblance between aunt and niece. Sure it was far more Danny that he saw but there was a hint of Jazz there too. Wouldn't that be fun, watching Danny become a dad.

"What was all that about Tucker?" Jazz asked, eyeing the three as they emerged.

"Just needed to convince a certain someone to- OUW!" Tucker stopped midsentence as Sam smacked him in the back of the head. "Okay, okay, I get it."

Jazz looked between them until Sam rolled her eyes. "It's okay, Jazz, this will help, according to Tucker, at least." She couldn't very well tell the older teen without fear of Lilly overhearing them.

Up until then Danny had been hanging out a bit behind them looking and feeling more awkward then he ever had before. He tried his best to avoid all eyes but couldn't help but peek at Lilly, and her eyes were all on him. What would she do when she found out? How would she react? This… thing… she saw Phantom do? What was it… and who was it with? Why was it so upsetting to her? Tucker said they would meet her soon, could she possible be… somehow… Dani? Could this be a future Danielle that had her memories erased and didn't remember she too was half ghost? But why wouldn't Tucker just tell them that? Why would that be so secretive? Did she tell him she was a clone? Did Tucker think Danny didn't know about Dani being a clone? Why hadn't he asked this before? He couldn't really ask now… he wasn't sure about her hearing, but he didn't want to chance it. Tuck said they would know her eventually, he'd just have to trust him, to trust them.

Gazing back into the room he saw Lilly still hadn't taken her eyes off him. He peeked over at Sam and saw her glaring at the girl with barely contained rage. That at least drew a small smile from him. Looking back at Lilly, she started gazing between both him and Sam, her eyes narrowing.

"Okay! Enough with the odd looks! Someone say _something_!" Jazz groaned.

The whole room jumped.

Danny gave a nervous laugh and turned to Tucker. "Any suggestions on where to…"

"Oh, um… okay," Tucker nodded, understanding what Danny was getting at. He thought for a moment before speaking up. "Jazz, remember we told you that Lilly attacked Phantom when she first saw him?"

Not sure where he was going with this, the room listened, and Jazz nodded.

"You said she hated him for reasons she wouldn't explain," Jazz answered.

Tucker nodded. "Yes, and she also attacked him with ghost powers, ghost powers contained in a human body."

"Right?" Jazz asked, confused on where this was leading.

"Well…" Tucker started but Danny continued, knowing, or at least having a clue on where to go from there.

"Well, we know that's not entirely unheard of," Danny answered, walking farther into the room. By now Tucker had taken up residence in the armchair and Danny stood beside him. On Danny's other side stood Sam, leaning against the wall all facing Jazz and Lilly on the couch.

"Yes, the ghost virus," Jazz answered.

"No… I'm not talking about a bite from a ghost bug that will temporarily give you a single ghost power…," Danny replied, trying to find the words while waving off the simple idea of a ghostly bug bite as if it was nothing.

That shut Jazz up, now she thought she knew exactly what the three were about to do.

"Danny… are you sure?" she asked. To which Danny nodded.

"I'm talking about a human… having the powers a ghost has, like Lilly has. Flight, invisibility, intangibility, ecto-energy control and more. A human who has the characteristics of a ghost while still being considered alive," Danny replied, looking at Lilly.

"I'm confused, are we talking about me or someone else?" Lilly asked. _A human who has powers_ like _me?_

"You aren't the first human we have met that has these powers, Lilly," Danny explained. "You actually count… as the fourth."

"What! Seriously?! Who?" Lilly gasped, eyes wide.

"You've met one of them," Danny tried, wondering if she would catch on or not.

"I have?"

"Yes, you have."

"But… I haven't seen any person I know using ghost powers but me," she replied, confused.

"That's because they didn't appear… alive… when you saw this. This person can change their appearance by choice to hide from the public eye. It wouldn't do for the rest of the town to know humans can wield the might of a ghost with so many ghost hunters around."

Lilly paused, thinking. "So… one of the ghosts I've met… is also a human?" trying the words out on her tongue.

"Yes. They are a living ghost, a human who has died but not all the way. One saved from death by the very power of death itself. Walking with the humans and flying with the ghosts. Few humans know of this possibility, but most all ghosts know of these humans," Danny explained while she was still willing to listen.

"Who is it? Which ghost is alive?" Abbi asked, her mind was still reeling on this possibility. One could be both dead and alive? But could appear both ways also? Was this something like her or was it completely different? She controlled powers while being alive, she was sure she hadn't died but the way Danny said it sounded like this person or persons had died.

"The ghost you claim to hate so much. The one you attacked the moment you met him," Danny said, looking Lilly in the eyes. "Phantom."

 _ **Posted 6/5/2019**_

Yup...I left it there... Evil cackle

Happy 2nd Birthday Quinn!

In honor of your 2nd birthday, I am posting two chapters!

Enjoy! Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	26. Chapter 26: Fenton-Phantom

_**Chapter Twenty-Six**_ _ **: Fenton/Phantom**_

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

"What?" Abbi whispered, gazing at Danny in shock. "How is that possible?"

"I don't think it's the same way as you are. Phantom nearly died when he was transformed into the creature he is today," Danny noticed his sister and friends narrowing their eyes at his comment, but he ignored them, continuing in his explanation. "The same ecto-energy that was killing him was also saving him at the same time. Fusing to his DNA and reviving it. He did and didn't die that day. He continues to live while walking this thin line between the two states of existence. You never had any near-death experience that you've told us about nor do I think you are hiding one from us that could cause this to happen to you. It takes a large about of Ectoplasm to do to a human what happened to Phantom. And seeing as how you didn't know what ghosts even were before we met you. Well, I think you are still fully alive though I can't be sure," Danny finished his little speech to the silent room.

Abbi was shocked. This Phantom ghost was also alive? He could be both dead and alive. And what was it Danny had said? He could change his appearance to look alive or dead? How did that work?

"If he can… change to look more human, have I?" she asked, trailing off at the end.

"Met him? Yes, you have," Danny asked.

"How much does his appearance change? I've never met any white-haired boys before, and certainly not here in Amity Park, I've barely met anyone here," Abbi wondered, trying to think back on any of the people she had met since arriving here six days ago.

"Not very much to be honest. His hair and eyes change color, clothing too but that's kind of obvious," Danny explained, shrugging.

"So, what does he look like? Who is he when he is alive?" Abbi asked.

"He has black hair, not white. And his eyes are blue instead of green," Danny explained, looking Abbi right in the eyes as if expecting something from her.

Phantom with black hair and blue eyes…. She tried to picture him, thinking back to some of their training sessions when she was able to get a good look at him. It was hard to think of him as being alive as well as dead. To know he had come so close to death but escaped it, or did he? Did his heart beat when he was a ghost? Did it beat when he was human? Was he able to grow? She'd seen him in the future, he'd looked older so he could age at least.

She saw his face in her memory. Fixing her eyes on it she tried to picture him with black hair. It wasn't too hard since his eyebrows were black too. And changing out the glowing green eyes for blue. The idea sounded so familiar. She could picture it so well.

Her eyes focused back on the boy standing in front of her in the Fenton's living room. And suddenly it wasn't Phantom she was picturing with black hair and blue eyes… but it was her father, Danny Fenton, whom she was picturing with white hair and glowing green eyes. As Phantom, Danny Phantom.

Her father was Danny Phantom.

 **DP DP DP**

Danny saw her putting the pieces together. Her eyes went unfocused for a few moments but when they came back, she was looking at him in a new light. It wasn't hard to figure out once one knew to look for Phantom in him. But how many people thought to look for a ghost inside a living boy? How many people knew it was possible to be both?

Lilly's jaw dropped open just a bit further, her eyes wide.

Danny grasped the cold spot beside his heart that he'd come to know as his core. He felt more than saw the ring forming around his waist. This caused Lilly to jump back in her seat. The ring split in two and travel up his body, changing his clothing as well as his features to that of the ghost boy, Danny Phantom.

It was the first time he'd ever changed in front of someone like this. Revealing himself to a stranger. A stranger who hated him, no less. But if what Tucker said was true then telling Lilly this would take the anger away.

The rings finished their journey and faded from existence. Danny Fenton was gone. His heart was still. In his place stood Phantom. Waiting with batted breath for a reaction out of the girl sitting in front of him. The other three waited as well, eyes on Lilly as she gazed at him. Unmoving for the longest time before.

"Holy $#%!"

 _ **Posted 6/5/2019**_

Hi! I know it was short but I knew you would be mad if I left it at 'Phantom' with the last chapter.

I'm posting this very late today. It's odd to think that two years ago we were waiting for my niece to be born and I was typing up my Concealment story. It was twelve hours waiting at the hospital before we would be told my sis would be getting a C-section. By now we were anxiously awaiting news on how it went/would go. It wouldn't be till 12:30 or so that we would know how it all went. We had to ask what her birthday even was when my brother-in-law came to tell us everyone was doing good. :)

Love you Quinn! Maybe someday you will even read this story... yeah... I don't see your mom wanting that ;P

Oh well, And a Happy Anniversary to this story too!

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	27. Chapter 27:Coming to Terms-Into the Zone

_**Chapter Twenty-Seven**_ _ **: Coming to Terms/ Into the Zone**_

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

"Holy $#%!"

"Language!" Jazz said, scolding Lilly. This only made Sam and Tucker chuckle as Lilly turned from the newly revealed Phantom to shoot a glare at Jazz.

"Holy Ghost! Better?" Lilly asked.

Jazz thought about it for a second then nodded, "That will do, given the circumstanced."

Lilly turned back to Phantom slower this time. Taking in his appearance and comparing him to the Danny she had come to know.

"All… all this time… you've been Danny?" she asked, her voice quiet.

Phantom nodded. "No one knows outside this room… and the ghosts I fight, most of them know. My parents don't know, no one at school, none. You actually count as the first person I've ever "told"…," Phantom said, trying for a joking tone but failing a bit.

Confused, Lilly looked to the other three, her question obvious.

"Sam and I were there when… the accident happened. We helped him the first few months hiding the powers he couldn't yet control," Tucker explained.

Lilly nodded before turning to Jazz.

"I happened to follow Danny after a ghost appeared and saw him transform," Jazz explained. "Sam and Tucker tried to lie to me about what I saw but it didn't take many clues after that to figure out he was somehow also a ghost."

"Yeah, and she didn't tell me for months either, took a certain ghost attack for the truth to come out, she's been running interference with out parents ever since," Phantom said, giving Jazz a lighthearted glare.

Lilly nodded slowly, taking it in, trying to have it all make sense. "So… you're partially dead?"

Phantom tilted his head to the side, "In a way, yes. My heart is not beating right now so that would make the argument that I 'die' when I change forms; however." Bright rings appeared around his waist and changed him back to Fenton. "My heart beats normally when I am in my… human form. Phantom is not a separate person from myself. He is not a ghost that overshadows me. There is no difference between me and Phantom. There's just Danny, the 'halfa'."

"Halfa?"

"Half-a-human and half-a-ghost, 'the halfa'. The ghosts actually came up with the name, not me, don't know who started it either," Danny explained. Then, just to play with Lilly a bit, he rose off the floor to float cross-legged in the air about three feet off the ground.

 **DP DP DP**

Abbi blinked at him, not quite sure what to say. It was all beginning to dawn on her that the man she saw kissing her mother some seven days ago was her father but in his 'ghost form'. Her mother hadn't been cheating on her dad. The conversation about powers made more sense too. It all fit. It was no wonder she had these powers, because they were in her blood, her father passed them on to her. Did that make her part ghost? A quarter ghost? Was that a thing? If half ghosts were, she wouldn't be too surprised if quarter ghosts were. And hadn't Danny said he wasn't the only one?

"Who else is a… a halfa?" Abbi asked. Surely it wasn't someone else in this room…?

 **DP DP DP**

"You've never met either of them so don't worry about it, chances of meeting them before we get you home are slim anyway," Danny answered. He hadn't even seen Dani since she was stabilized, and Vlad had kept quiet which was a nice vacation from his constant 'be my son and join me' speeches. "And about getting you home, Tucker said he had an idea? Right, Tuck? Something involving a visit to Clockwork?" he turned to Tucker.

"Yeah, he might be just the ghost to get the job done," Tucker answered.

"Clockwork?" Jazz asked. "The time ghost? The one who helped with the evi-"

"Yup. That one," Danny said, glaring at Jazz for even considering saying that aloud in front of Lilly.

"A ghost of time?" Lilly asked, brightening up. "How does that work?"

"Hard to explain Clockwork, easier to just let you meet him," Danny replied, standing on solid ground again. "Care to take a trip into the Ghost Zone?"

Lilly's eyes bugged out. "Go into the Ghost Zone? Humans can do that? Have you ever done that before?" she asked, looking at Danny and Tucker, even glancing at Sam and Jazz once.

"Yup," Tucker answered, smugly. "See, now that you're in on the secret, we can actually tell you a lot more truths, no need to pretend we don't actively fight ghosts to any capacity."

"Tuck, we aren't telling her everything," Sam growled.

"Well no, that would take weeks! Like the Undergrowth thing," Tucker teased.

"How about we start with the Pharaoh thing," Sam bit back.

"Touché," Tucker laughed nervously, "No need for the ghost powered girl to be mad at me now…"

Lilly gave him a confused look at that comment. "Now what am I missing?"

"Just some of our more personal ghost fights is all. I'm sure you will know them all eventually," Danny replied. Turning his attention, he glanced at his sister. "Want to join us? You've yet to really go into the Zone."

"Nah, I'll stay here in case mom and dad call, and I'll keep an eye out for any ghost attacks and let you know if we need you back here," Jazz reasoned, more than happy to stay on the living side of the portal.

"Okay, your loss," Danny replied before turning towards the kitchen and the lab beyond it.

Abbi trailed behind the group, watching as they discussed the different weapons they might need in the Zone. She came to realize fast that they really had been…lying to her… in a way. They walked around the lab like it was theirs, picking up tools Abbi couldn't even begin to guess what they might be for. Tucker and Sam each put on some kind of belt, but Danny didn't take one, nor did they offer one to her. Sam grabbed some kind of bracelet. Each grabbed crazy futuristic guns and checked that they were fully loaded.

Danny turned then pulled the tarp off a large object that Abbi hadn't noticed in her first visit to the lab. Underneath it was like something out of the Stargate shows they sometimes played reruns of. Danny opened the door and stepped up into the ship, vanishing inside. Seconds later the thing was powering up and rising into the air.

Tucker gently pulled Abbi out of the way as Danny _flew_ the vehicle into position in front of the currently closed yellow and black stripped doorway in the wall. Abbi could then tell the two were perfectly designed for the ship to go through the doorway.

"Here," Tucker said, holding out a pair of some kind of earbuds. "They are kind of like walky-talkies for when we are in the ghost zone. Lets us talk with Danny if he is outside the Spector Speeder. Jazz can also get ahold of us using them from this side of the portal too." He pointed at a pair that already rested in his own ears. Looking around she saw Sam wearing a pair and Danny, who had appeared at the door to the ship, had a pair in his hands too.

Nodding numbly, she slipped them into her ears.

Danny hopped down from the ship and approached her. She wasn't sure how to describe it, but he'd changed. He was still…human… but he was different. He walked taller, and with more purpose, more confidence. His eyes held a gleam of anticipation, excitement she'd never seen there before. As he drew near her, she realized where she had seen it, in Phantom. Each and every time they'd met, or she'd seen him fighting a ghost, it was with an air of confidence, power… _pride_.

And now, because he'd told her the truth, he didn't have to hide himself from her anymore. It was as if he'd woken up, come alive. This was his element. Where he felt the most comfortable. An odd mix of Fenton and Phantom. The brave man her mother had fallen in love with. The man Uncle Tucker and Aunt Jazz told stories of. How many of those stories had been true? What had they changed in them to make them non-paranormal? How had-

"Lilly? You there?"

Abbi blinked her eyes and focused on the Danny in front of her.

"You spaced out there, what were you thinking about?" Danny seemed genuinely curious. But Abbi knew she couldn't answer him with the truth.

"Just what it will be like in there, you've never really told me anything about the Zone itself," Abbi lied. It wasn't a lie really, she'd wondered that on the way down the stairs, it had just been pushed to the back of her mind.

Danny gave a little laugh. "I guess I haven't, we never had a lesson on the Zone, did we?" he replied. He turned and followed her gaze to the portal.

But that comment had taken her gaze off the portal and back to Danny.

The lessons… they had been with Phantom… But _Danny. Was. Phantom._ Her father had been teaching her about her ghost powers these past few days… It was confusing to look at Danny, with his black hair and normal blue eyes, the face she'd always pictured when thinking of her father and know that he had a second face that was just as much him as this one was.

And as she watched the rings pass over his body a second time she wondered if _this_ Danny wasn't more his true self then his human side…

"So, a new lesson is in order then!" Phantom said, smiling. Rising into the air he held his hand out to her. "You game? Do you want to ride in the Speeder or fly outside with me?"

The look of utter terror seemed to answer that question quickly.

"In the Speeder it is. Hop in with Sam and Tucker, and we'll get going, I'll explain along the way and answer any questions you have," he offered, retracting his hand to motion towards the other two teens who were already at the door of the Speeder.

"What is that, anyway?" Abbi asked, slowly making her way over to it.

"My parents dubbed it the 'Spector Speeder'. An ecto-fueled aircraft designed to withstand the atmosphere of the Ghost Zone. The Zone itself is safe for humans, you can breathe the air and walk on the ground – on what ground there is – you'll see in a moment. It's more to protect humans from any ghost that might want to attack them while exploring the Zone."

"And your parents have tested it out?" Abbi asked, hesitant.

"Nope!" Phantom laughed. "But the three of us have used it more than a couple times. It's what I was in the first time I went into the Zone, by accident of course, but after that we started exploring and trying to even map out the Zone, which is rather hard as all the land is really just floating islands and boulders. There are doors everywhere that lead to the lairs of different ghosts too, so don't open any doors you see."

Abbi froze with her foot in the air, mid-step into the Speeder. "You mean your parents build this and never tested it? Have they ever even been in the Zone?"

Phantom laughed. "Nope! The leading experts on ghosts and they've never even explored the Zone before. But we have. You'll be fine with us. I'm sure Clockwork is expecting us already, too."

Abbi reluctantly finished climbing into the Speeder. Tucker shut the door behind her and while Sam was making her way to the driver's seat, Tucker gave Abbi a reassuring smile. Unable to give a verbal comfort since they all were wearing the earpieces.

"How does he know we are coming? Did you tell him somehow?" Abbi asked, gazing at Tucker and then at Phantom through the front windshield of the Speeder. Tucker shook his head but it was Phantom who explained again.

"Clockwork is the ghost of time. He sees every possibility that time could take, past, present, and future," Phantom explained as Sam and Tucker began firing up the Speeder and doing last minute system checks. Phantom kept explaining. "He knows when I plan to come and what I'm coming about. He will even come to me and let me know if something really bad is headed our way. He doesn't interfere with time, per se, but he does help it towards the best outcome when he can get away with it."

"So… he will know that I'm coming and how to get me home?" Abbi asked carefully, not sure how much of the truth Tucker had told her parents while they were in the basement lab.

"I'm certain of it. Whenever you come from, he'll know. He has these mirrors that see into the future and into the past and he can even send you there if he gives you one of his amulets."

Abbi froze at his statement 'whenever you come from'. She glanced to Tucker who sat on her left, trying to ask a question with her eyes. What ever he meant by shakeing his head… she didn't know.

"But Danny," Sam started, surprising Abbi by calling this form of her father 'Danny' when she'd only ever heard Tucker and Sam call this form 'Phantom'. "When we went to that future we had to be wearing that amulet and the second it came off we were sent back to our original time. I haven't seen Lilly wearing any kind of time amulet since she got here."

Phantom gave her a puzzled look and nodded… "Yeah… guess you're right… Maybe… maybe it's like… Dan… who put the amulet inside himself so he could be outside of time?"

"Who is Dan?" Abbi asked, losing the meaning of the conversation.

"A story for another time," Phantom answered, turning his back on the ship. "Ready to open the portal up Sam?"

"All systems are a go. No turning back now," she said, pressing her hand on the large red button. Loud buzzing sounded in the lab and red lights started flashing as steam poured from the portal and slowly the doors began to slid open.

Abbi's jaw fell open as a swirling mass of green energy was revealed behind the blast doors of the portal.

"See you on the other side!" Phantom shouted and dove head first into the green gas, and vanished.

Sam eased forward on the wheel and the Speeder gained speed as it to flew into the portal, leaving the living world behind.

If her jaw was able to, Abbi was sure it would have fallen open even farther. The sky was a mix of purple and green that moved constantly like an artist stirring their paint which would never truly blend together. Just as Phantom had said, islands of land floated suspended in the air. Some huge pieces of land capable of holding a football stadium, others just large enough for one person to sit down on. The grass was a odd blue color. Trees of varying species and colors dotted the larger land masses.

And then there were the doors.

Hundreds of them were aimlessly floating in the sky. Each a different design. Some large, some small. All purple. She saw some eyes peering out from some of them. And when she made contact with the eyes, the door would be slammed shut and it wouldn't be opened again.

"Welcome Lilly, to the Ghost Zone," Phantom said, standing/floating a little ways inside, smiling at Lilly. Who suddenly had a flash of Hagrid welcoming Harry to Diagon Ally…

The trip felt a lot like a school field trip to some historic site, only a lot more intriguing to Abbi. Phantom was explaining everything from ghost law and Christmas Truces to explaining the different islands and who might live there. He even told a few stories about some of the places they passes, such as Dora's kingdom where he was apparently knighted after helping her take over the kingdom from her evil controlling brother. He brought up the Far Frozen again where a group ghosts lived that had helped him learn to control his ice powers so they didn't end up killing him the rest of the way. He pointed out a large skull like island where the king of the ghost zone was trapped in a sarcophagus, which Phantom had trapped him in after some ghost named Plasmius set him free and he tried to take over the living world as well as the Ghost Zone.

"So…." Abbi began after what felt like an hour of stories of heroics. "How many times have you saved this place now?" And how come no one felt the need to tell her any of this in her own time?!

"Depends what you mean. I saved the whole world… three times… or was it four?"

"Lets see," Tucker said, pulling out his PDA and scrolling through some files before he began. "Ember tried to control the world with her song." He put up one finger. "Technus tried to take over the internet and thus the world." Another finger went up. "Pariah tried to take over the Zone and our world." That made it three. "Dan… just Dan." Four. "Freakshow tried for world domination again, Plasmius tried to change the past to control the world, then there was Vortex." Seven. "Followed by Undergrowth who wanted to destroy all humans on the planet… So… if we say it's the Whole Earth, then eight times. If it's only Amity Park that was targeted… well… that's a lot longer of a list…"

The Speeder and Phantom had fallen silent at as the list went on, eventually Sam brought the ship to a stop and Phantom hovered outside just staring at Tucker.

"What? It's true," Tucker said, "Check for yourself!"

"I know it's true Tuck, that just… sounds like a lot of saving… when you list it all like that…" Phantom said slowly. Then getting a bit defensive. "And you all helped with those things too! Without Sam and you, I never would have been able to do any of those things."

"I'll give you a little on that, Danny," Tucker nodded a bit. "Ember, yes, Sam was essential in that case and with the internet one also. We all helped with Freakshow and Plasmius's trip into the past. But Pariah? That was you. Dan? That was you (literally). Undergrowth, again, you. Same with Vortex. You defeated the _power players_. The big powerful ghosts, _you_ took down. And that still only counts the worldwide saving."

Silence reigned again after his break down of the past fights.

Abbi looked from Tucker to Sam and Phantom, waiting for someone to contradict him. Call him a big fat liar or something. How was any of that possible? How had she never heard of any of these events when they were such recent history? How come this wasn't taught in school or at least by parents who had to have lived through it all?

She looked back at Phantom. "Is all that true?"

"Well, that's really the condensed version of events. A lot of things happened with each of those attacks. Each one was different and while yes, I took down the big guys with just me, I still had help in each of the events. I… I really don't see it as… I'm not some… it's…" Phantom trailed off. "Let's… keep moving, we aren't far from Clock's place now." He said, turning tail, literally, and flying off.

Abbi sat there, quiet for some time until Tucker pushed the PDA into her lap. A text box was pulled up and he'd typed something to her, seeing as how he couldn't tell her anything aloud. Abbi took the PDA and read the message.

'When you make it back home to your time, ask your Danny about these stories. I think he'd be able to explain everything to you. Our Danny is still so new to the hero gig. He's not used to the praise he's given and he still refuses to take it. I'm sure adult Danny Phantom will have had time to come to terms with being the hero he is. Adult Danny Phantom will have a lot more to show you and teach you. He's your father after all. Our Danny is still just a kid with a lot more to learn. Just… let him tell you about Dan… don't ask about that one, it's a very hard topic for him. What do you say?'

Abbi read through the message a few times, taking in Tuckers words. She could see the reasoning behind them. To this Danny she was a complete stranger. An odd girl who somehow has the same powers he does but is apparently from a different time. Her own father would have known of her since conception. Probably watched her grow even if he hadn't been there in person. Maybe he'd even practiced telling her these very stories of his youthful heroics. Maybe he's done even more since now, saved the universe maybe? Or more? (What's bigger then saving the universe?) But don't ask about Dan? It was a hard topic for him? She wondered what that could possible mean.

Tucker nudged her in the elbow. Abbi guessed she was taking too long to reply. She quickly backspaced through his message, deleting it to type a response.

'You're probably right, I'd want it to really be my dad telling me his stories. _He is_ my dad, but he doesn't know that. Do you think when I get back that he will come meet me? And tell me all this himself?'

She handed the PDA back to him and looked out the windshield at the blurred outline of her teenage father. Would he come see he? Would he stop hiding now that she knew who and what he was? Would he continue to teach her all the stuff this Danny had begin?

Tucker pressed the PDA back a lot faster than she had anticipated. Glancing down, she read his response.

'When you get back, if Danny isn't there waiting for you, ask Sam and me. Tell us you know your father is a halfa. Tell us where you went and what you learned, tell us that you were Lilly. Well, I guess I'll already know but it will help for Sam. We already know Danny is at least still around in the future. You'll get the whole story once you get back to the future, I'm sure of it.'

Abbi smiled at Tuckers joke. It was true, he would know exactly who she was. Had he been waiting for her to vanish in twenty years? Did that mean, since he didn't try to stop it, that she does make it back home? Or does something happen that makes it so none of them remember meeting her? She never got the impression that Uncle Tucker was waiting for anything to happen but if he's known since this moment that she would be born and one day travel into the past, why would he act any differently around her then she was already used too.

Abbi groaned suddenly, shocking not only hear but the other three as well.

"What is it?" Tucker asked, worry etched across his face.

"This is so confusing, my head hurts!"

Tucker broke out laughing.

 **DP DP DP**

"There it is," Phantom shouted some twenty minutes later. Pointing ahead he few out of the way for Abbi to get a look at where they were heading. It looked a bit like a clock with gears floating around it and poking out of it in odd places. An odd ticking filled the air as they approached, like hundreds of thousands of little clocks were invisible around them.

Sam guided the Spector Speeder to the island and landed it with a soft thud before beginning to turn off the engine and other instruments.

"What do you think?" Phantom asked through the earpiece.

Abbi gazed up at the impressive structure. It was a strange mixture of castle and grandfather clock, but it went together well. It was meant to. And it certainly looked like a place someone obsessed with time would live.

"It's cool," Abbi answered, as she followed Sam and Tucker out the door and got a proper view of it from the ground. "The ticking would drive me nuts but it's really cool."

"I'm glad you think so."

The voice echoed in the Zone's atmosphere as the doors before them slowly swung open. Behind them floated a small child with a clock in his chest and a ghostly tail instead of legs. Red eyes and a purple cloak made him look a bit like the ghost of a warlock, if warlocks were five-year-olds. Yet as he floated out to meet them, his appeance changed. He grew into a large, strong shouldered ghost. The septer in his hand grew with him along with his cloak.

"Welcome Danial, Samantha, Tucker. It is good to see you all again.

"Hi, Clockwork, how have you been?" Phantom asked, setting down on the ground beside his friends.

"I've been well. Watching over everything," he answered, his voice unchanged from his child form, though it fit this form much better.

"I assume you know why we are here?" Phantom replied, smirking as the ghosts before him shifted once again, this time into an old man with long white beard.

"I do," Clockwork answered, giving no further answer than that.

When silence followed it was Abbi who finally spoke up.

"And? Can you help me? Can you send me back?" Abbi asked, hoping beyond hope.

"I can not child. I can not see where you have come from, nor can I sent you back there, the windows tell me nothing of your trip through time," Clockworks tone spoke of confusion and resentment, never before had the windows failed to show him what he asked for.

"N-nothing?" Abbi gasped, fear settling more heavily on her heart.

"Nothing," the ghost replied, shifted from a man to a child once more.

"Can- can you tell if she will find a way back on her own? Will she get back there soon?"

"The windows to the future show many possible futures, Daniel. In most Lilly does return, but not in all, no. Neither can I tell you when she might return home," his voice regretful. "I am sorry, Great One."

Abbi's eyes had drifted to the earth. She sunk onto the ground, her head held in her hands. "What if I never get back?" she asked. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I can't answer you that, but have faith, you are a clever girl and with help from your friends, it is too soon to think you won't make it home," Clockwork bowed once more before bidding team Phantom farewell and drifting back into his clocktower. Leaving them to their thoughts.

 _ **Posted 6/25/19**_

Ahh! It's done. The number of times I almost just stopped it there and called it a night. But I kept going.

Hope you enjoyed it. Some parts got really heavy there towards the end that I wasn't really planning. But she is still coming to terms with her father being who and what he is. Tucker tries to help but the poor boy can only do so much! He's fourteen after all, no exactly 'wise beyond his years' just yet.

Anyone make the connection with that last scene? Seem anyway at all familiar?

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	28. Chapter 28: Goodbye

_**Chapter Twenty-Eight: Goodbye**_

 _Wednesday June 11th 1998_

It was quiet as the group filed back into the Specter Speeder. Even Phantom joined them as Sam fired the engines back up. Phantom took the wheel, slowly easing the Speeder into the air and heading off. If there was a destination in mind yet, Abbi didn't know.

"So now what?" Sam asked. Looking from Phantom who sat beside her to Abbi and Tucker who sat in the row behind them.

"Well," Tucker started, "Lilly still needs to get back to her time. Do you think the Infi-map would help? Could that take her back, one of us could go with her to bring the map back here?"

"I'm not so sure Frostbite would let us take it again," Phantom replied.

"Not even for his favorite 'Great One'?" Tucker teased.

"'Great One'?" Abbi asked. Phantom shot a glare back at Tucker, making the boy laugh.

"The leader of the Far Frozen, his name is Frostbite. He and his people call Danny 'The Great One' because he defeated Pariah Dark and saved the zone from the evil tyrant. Danny hates it," Tucker explained, still chuckling.

"Ah," Abbi responded, understanding at least a little more.

"It can't hurt to at least try? Can it?" Tucker asked. "We are already here."

"Guess not, it will be a long drive but it's not like my parents are waiting at home for us," Phantom agreed, easing the speeder to the left before continuing.

"So what's this place like? 'Far Frozen' doesn't exactly sound inviting," Abbi asked the vehicle in general.

"The Far Frozen. We first came across it when trying to make a map of the ghost zone. Then I ended up coming back when I was developing a new power - my ice powers to be exact. It's a large mass of land that's covered in snow. The village is near the very center of the… continent? Landmass? Anyway. The village is run by my friend Frostbite," Phantom began explaining. "They saved me from my ice core when it first activated and helped me learn to control the new power. They all, that is, the Yeti's of the town, all have the same ice power as me. It might not be as powerful as mine but being yeti's and having that power means living in a frozen land doesn't bother them at all. Going a visiting them doesn't bother me but Sam and Tucker have to wear winter gear. We should have some spares for you."

"You're being serious, aren't you? Yeti ghosts? Like actual yeti's that died and became ghosts?" Abbi asked, astounded.

"Well, I don't know that they were yetis when they 'lived' or if they just manifested in the Far Frozen and the ectoplasm adjusted to the climate in that way," Phantom explained. "I've never asked about that."

"So what do they look like?" Abbi asked, leaning over the seat to look at both Phantom and the small mass of white that had appeared out of the green sky.

"Like yetis," Phantom answered unhelpfully. "Large, maybe eight feet tall? Covered in white fur. Two horns made of ice on their heads. Frostbite lost his arm somehow and now has an ice arm that you can see the bone through. Not sure how that works…" Phantom shrugged at that comment. "Basically, what you'd picture a yeti to look like."

"An… ice arm…" Abbi murmured, eyes large as she gazed at her father. He spoke so calmly about all of this. It was all completely normal for him. Sam and Tucker too. They didn't bat an eye at Phantom's comments. Again it struck her just how normal this was for them and yet clearly something had changed between now and when she was born. How could six years change so many things?

"There it is," Phantom said, pointing towards the white land mass that was steadily growing larger. "Should be there in another twenty minutes or so."

"Let's get the coats now," Tucker said, standing up and moving to the back of the speeder. In a lower compartment he pulled out a few heavy-duty winter coats in a dark blue or black color. They had fur lined hoods. He also pulled out some pairs of gloves before heading back to the seats. "It doesn't take long for the cold to seep into this thing," he explained, handing both Abbi and Sam a coat and a pair of gloves.

Thanking him, the two girls pulled the coats on. They left them unzipped for now and the gloves off; but Abbi could already feel the temperature in the speeder dropping. They had just reached the edge of the land mass and soon all she could see was white. It lite up the inside of the speeder and was a bite blinding on the eyes. The ghostly green light diminished to a white light even though the sky still glowed green.

A mountain range appeared, and Phantom flew the speeder over it effortlessly. The temperature dropped and Abbi, Sam and Tucker started zipping up the coats and pulling on the gloves. Phantom simply sat there like it was your average spring day.

"And there it is," Phantom announced.

Looking farther out, Abbi could see what appeared to be a whiteish-blue village rising up from the snow. Houses, large and small, and a castle of sorts sat all clustered together under the green sky. "What do you think?"

"It's… amazing…" Abbi answered. Gazing in awe as the village drew closer. Soon she glimpsed her first yeti and her eyes grew large. It was just as Phantom had described it. Large, scary large and covered in white fur. Two wicked horns grew out of its skull and teeth, large pointed teeth stuck out of it's mouth like a wolf.

"Frostbite is probably at the castle, so we'll head there," Phantom announced to the speeder while waving to the yeti as they flew past. All the yetis that appeared from their homes or walked the streets looked up towards the speeder. Most waved when they saw Phantom was flying it. Some even shouted out greetings that Abbi couldn't hear inside the speeder.

"Told you they worshiped him," Tucker snickered, pointing out a large stature of Phantom that appeared to be at the center of their town square.

"Wow, don't see that every day," Abbi teased, picking up on the green blush on her father's cheeks.

DPDPDP

"Great One!" the large yeti with an arm made of ice shouted out as the four teens exited the speeder.

"Hi Frostbite, how have you been?" Phantom asked, embarrassment in his voice.

"I have been well! And you? Have you come for more training?" the yeti was grinning from ear to ear at the sight of Phantom. Or Abbi assumed it was a grin… did he even have ears? Or were those just tufts of fur?

"Not training today, Frostbite. We were actually wondering if you could offer us a little help," Phantom explained.

"Oh? What can I do for you, Great One?" the large yeti asked, intrigued.

"Maybe we could discuss things inside?" Phantom asked, noticing how large of a crowd they were drawing.

"Certainly, certainly, come, follow me!" the beast announced, turning and heading towards the castle he had just exited from.

"Think this will even work?" Abbi asked Tucker from behind Sam and Phantom.

"All we can do is try," Tucker answered.

DPDPDP

"So that's what is going on, do you think there is any chance that the Map could send Lilly back to her time?" Phantom had just finished a rather long-winded explanation of Lilly's situation to the yeti leader. The group was left now, hoping the beast would answer in a positive light.

"I don't see why not, it has taken you far into the past, I don't see why it couldn't take her a few years into the future as well. I am willing to escort the young girl back to her home time and return with the map," Frostbite announced. "If she were to land in her time within your presence, we could be faced with a problem. Your future selves would not know what is going on and might attack if they see Lilly with one of you. You would be less likely to attack me, and I would be able to leave quickly with little problem."

Abbi's eyes grew wide. She was prepared for Tucker to come with her, but not for Frostbite to volunteer his company. She was still nervous around the large beast and not knowing what this trip would be like… well, let's just say she was more then a little nervous.

"Think so?" Phantom asked. "I guess I can see why we might do that…"

"But won't we remember that one of us would end up bringing her back?" Tucker asked.

"Not necessarily. While it should be that you will remember, we do not know if this trip from her future to our present has created a new timeline. Perhaps the one she is returning to will never have had Lilly arriving to our past. We won't know until we try," Frostbite explained, standing up from the chair he rested in. "Shall we try it now?"

"Yes, sure," Phantom agreed, a bit surprised by the suddenness of the event.

The four teens stood up as well and followed the yeti out into the hallway.

"So this is it?" Tucker asked, turning to Abbi.

Abbi could see a twinge of sadness in his eyes as he gazed at her. Phantom also appeared a bit disheartened. Sam just looked ready for this all to be over.

"Yeah, I guess so…" Abbi said quietly, her gaze falling to the ice floor they walked on.

"But it's not goodbye," Tucker said, straining to sound chipper. "We will see you again soon! After all! We are all friends!"

"Yeah," Abbi grinned, hiding her own sorrow. As they walked, she began wondering. What would the future she returned to be like? Would she return to when she vanished? Would time have pasted for her mom and dad the same way it had passed for her? If it had, what had her parents done in her absence? If it hadn't… how would she react to her mom pounding on the attic door? Would her father be there as well? How would she tell them that she knew? She knew everything? Or almost everything, at least.

Suddenly she was nervous about going home. But she had gotten her wish, hadn't she? She'd wanted to come back and meet her father, which she had. She had wanted him to teach her about her powers, which-now that she really thought about it- he had been the one to teach her, she just didn't know it.

And then they were there. In a small room with a chest sitting on a pillar. It glowed a gold color and when the yeti opened it he took out an old scroll map. "This," Frostbite turned to Abbi. "Is the Infi-Map. A map that will take you anywhere at anytime. Simply speak where and when you want to go and it will find the path way and take you there."

Abbi swallowed nervously. "And that's it? I just have to tell it to take me home? Or do I give it a specific place?"

"Asking to go home will be enough. It will know what you mean in your heart," Frostbite explained, holding the map out for Abbi to take hold of. "We simply need to both be holding on and it will take both of us."

"R-right, okay…" Abbi's voice wavered, her hand reaching for the map slowing.

"Wait," Phantom started. "Aren't you going to say goodbye first?"

"Oh, yeah…" Abbi nodded, gazing from her father to her mother and to Tuckers. "I'll miss you three, Jazz too. It's been…" Abbi trailed off, not sure how to continue.

"It's been interesting for sure, but it's been fun too, right Danny?" Tucker asked, trying to help the poor girl think of something. What do you say to your teenage parent who doesn't know they're your parent?

"Yes, can't argue with that, it might even be boring without you around Lilly," Phantom said, laughing lightly.

"Boring? With the number of ghosts that attack your town, I don't think that's possible," Abbi laughed. "But I do mean it. I will miss you."

"Will… will you tell the future us about this visit?" Phantom asked carefully.

"I… yeah… yeah I will, I'll tell them everything I think, but who knows, maybe you'll already know? Time travel is odd after all," Abbi replied. "Bye Tucker. Bye… Danny." Abbi's gaze traveled to Sam. "Bye Sam… I'll… see you all soon…"

"Bye Lilly, we won't forget you," Phantom said, nodding to the black-haired girl.

She nodded back, then turned back to Frostbite.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then just take hold of the map and ask it to take you home," he repeated, gripping the map tightly as well.

Abbi glanced at the three teens one last time and nodded. Then she turned to the map and gripped it tight. "Take me home."

 _ **Posted 9/25/19**_

I do apologize for the very long wait. Between family medical… emergencies and then a vacation that almost wasn't… then just trying to figure out how to write out what needed to happen… basically life and this chapter have been fighting me tooth and nail (or however the idiom goes).

And I still didn't even get to the part that is really fighting me… I had three different scenes of this chapter written. I used the first scene, ended up deleting the second because it no longer flowed with the events and the third scene will be (hopefully) in the next chapter.

No worries to my most recent reviewer. I am not giving up on the story. I might be slow, but I know where it's going. It's just getting there that takes all the effort. I had to watch the episodes with Frostbite in them to see what the Infi-map was like and about the ice powers thing. Totally didn't realize (remember) that he met the Far Frozen yetis before he got his ice powers. Had to change that paragraph after that!

Feel free to leave a review. They keep me smiling. :)

 _ **Morning Bleach**_


	29. Chapter 29: The Truth at Last

I really am very sorry this took so long to get out. I finally got around to sitting in Barnes and Noble and writing some after church on Sunday and got this chapter figured out. I'm the queen of procrastinating. Still... three chapters left to go. Did you think she was getting to go home today? Well...

 _ **Chapter Twenty Nine – The Truth at Last**_

 _Thursday, June 12th 1998_

 _Abbi glanced at the three teens one last time and nodded. Then she turned to the map and gripped it tight. "Take me home."_

Phantom, Sam and Tucker waited for the tell-tail signs of the Infi map activating. The wind and portals forming out of no-where. Whisking the holders off to some unknown place. But that didn't happen. The map didn't move, didn't glow, didn't even twitch.

"Did… did something go wrong?" Abbi asked, gazing from the map to Frostbite in confusion. Frostbite too looked confused.

"I'm am not sure. Try one more time, perhaps being more specific?" Frostbite suggested.

Abbi looked back down at the map. She began speaking quietly, as if whispering. Tucker noticed Sam's eyes narrowing at Abbi but he knew she couldn't make out what she was saying… but he also knew that Danny could.

The map glowed softly at first but within seconds it faded away, leaving Abbi and Frostbite still standing there.

"I… I don't understand, what happened?" Abbi asked.

"I'm not sure, but the map sometimes takes people where they need to be, not where they think they need to go. There is much about the map we still do not understand. I am sorry young one, but the map will not lead you home today," Frostbite said. Taking the map back when Abbi let her hand drop from it. Slowly he placed it back into the chest. "Is there anything else I could help you with?"

"No, thanks anyway Frostbite," Phantom said, walking forward and laying a hand on Abbi's shoulder. "I'm sure we can think of something else to help you," Phantom told her. Even though Abbi nodded, Tucker was sure she didn't quite believe it.

"Of course Great One, you are welcome to stay as long as you need, perhaps the library could be of any help? It is also a good place for deep thought as well," Frostbite announced, gesturing his ice arm back towards the hallway.

"Thanks, we'll give it a try," Phantom said, giving the snow monster a small smile.

Their group was quite as they followed Frostbite down a few odd hallways until he opened some rather impressive double doors into a large room. The four walls were tall and their shelves were filled with books of every color and size. At the center of the room sat both a large table and even larger arm chairs. Clearly meant to sit yeti's and not humans.

"If you need anything, just send a yeti to get me. I will leave you to your search," Frostbite announced, bowing to Phantom before exiting the room.

Tucker gazed around the room along with the others. "Any idea's where to start?"

"Are these even in English?" Sam asked, sounding very doubtful.

"Only one way to find out," Phantom answered.

DP DP DP

"How can you read-"

"We aren't talking about how I can read a language I've never seen before, okay?" Phantom answered Sam for the fourth time after he read her the title of yet another book. The glare on his face was deep. Tucker was closer to chuckling then the other three teen's but he kept it to himself.

"Well it wouldn't do much good if Danny is the only one who can read any of these books," Sam said, putting "Winter Herbs for Ailments and Ills" back on the shelf. According to the titles that Phantom had read, they had come across history books, herbal remedies and the proper way to build an igloo but nothing that seemed to point towards returning to ones correct time period.

"Guys, this isn't exactly the Hogwarts Library. I don't think we are going to find a spell book titled 'Helpful tips to returning to ones correct time'. Let alone a book on time travel as it is," Abbi said, sinking low into her armchair. "This is pointless."

Phantom, Tucker and Sam all looked at the chair then at each other, utterly confused. Sam spoke up first.

"Um…. What's Hogwards?"

"Hu?" Abbi peeked over at them, blinking in surprise before understanding dawned on her. "Um… it's 'Hogwarts', it's from a book series that isn't published yet…, really good series though…" Abbi mumbled, looking away from the three of them. "Forget I mentioned it."

"What series?" Tucker asked.

"Nope! It's not important. I'm not spoiling it!" Abbi said.

Team Phantom gave the girl an odd look before shrugging it off. Sam went back to picking up random books while Phantom walked along a row, reading the titles off to the room in general.

"'History of the Ghost Zone'? If this was any other day, that might be interesting," Phantom said, pulling the book from the shelf.

"Maybe Frostbite will let you apply for a library card," Tucker snickered.

"Haha, you're so funny Tuck," Phantom replied, rolling his eyes, putting the book back on its shelf while taking note of where it was in the room. Abbi thought that was kinda funny.

Searching continued but even Phantom appeared to be giving up hope. He was the last one to join them at the large arm chairs, floating up to sit on the one across from Abbi. Silence fell on the group. Each in a different stage of thought. Tucker was tapping away on his PDA, Sam had her head leaning back on the chair, staring at the ceiling. Abbi caught sight of Phantom giving her a curious look, prompting her to draw her knees up to her chest and avoid his piercing green gaze. But avoiding is was all she could do.

"Lilly?" Phantom started, drawing Sam and Tuckers attention, but Abbi didn't turn. "What was it you said to the map the second time, when Frostbite had you be more specific."

Tucker perked up, he had been wandering what Danny might have heard too. Sam was just confused.

"W-what?" Abbi stuttered, shooting glances at Phantom and then back down to her knees.

"Frostbite told you to be more specific the second time, so you gave the map a date to return you to. What date was it… I'm certain I must have miss heard you," Phantom explained, not taking his eyes off Abbi.

"I… well… what I said was…" Abbi scrambled for an answer that would make sense. If Phantom had indeed heard her… she was in trouble. "I said-"

"Cuz I swore you said June X 2018, but that's a lot more the 'a few years' into the future to me," Phantom said, sensing that she wasn't going to tell the truth without more pressure.

"Twenty… twenty-eighteen? Is that what I said? No wonder the map didn't take me anywhere if I gave it the wrong-"

"Please don't treat us like we are stupid, Lilly," Phantom cut her off. "There is something more you are hiding, and we can't help if we don't have all the facts. If something you've told us is wrong or if you've left something out, that could be the reason we aren't able to get you home."

"I really don't think-" Abbi started but this time it was Tucker who happen to cut her off.

"Come to think of it Lilly, how did you get sent back here. You never actually told me how," Tucker murmured thoughtfully. "What sent you back here? Was it a machine? Or a ghost maybe? But if ghosts…" Tucker trailed off, not finishing his thought.

"If ghosts aren't… what, Tuck?" Sam asked, a bite in her tone.

"Just… something Lilly said… about her time… nothing important," Tucker tried to backpedal the conversation.

"I think we are pasted the 'what's important and not' Tuck. We need to know. What are you hiding from me and Sam?" Danny paused… "Or does it involve us?"

"What? No! No!"

"Tucker!"

Abbi was getting very nervous though the whole conversation, anxiety building as Tucker tried to calm his friends down. When his cornered gaze turned to Abbi, so did Sam and Phantoms.

"Lilly," Phantom said, part anger, part request for the information.

"I… I mean… it's just… the thing is… that…" Abbi tried to think of something, anything to say but the longer she paused the more anger appeared in Sam and in Phantom's gazes. And if she wasn't mistaken, disappointment too.

She hung her head, defeated. "My name isn't 'Lilly'," she started. The three teens silent as they waited. "My name is Abigail. Abbi Fenton."

"What…" Phantom's voice was hardly a whisper. But Abbi wasn't done yet.

"Daniel Fenton and Sam Mason are my parents," Abbi finished, gazing back up, looking the two teens in the eyes.

Sam's gaze was wide as she took in Abbi's appearance in a new light. Phantom's gaze, however, was switching between Sam and Abbi. No one spoke for quite some time as the news sunk in, but slowly, ever so slowly, Sam and Phantom began to blush; red and Green, respectively, began rising in their faces as the implications of what Abbi just said raced through their minds.

It wasn't a gasp or a caught that broke the silence, it was Tucker, holding back his snickers until they were full blown laughs. Watching his two best friends figure out what Abbi meant was freaking hilarious to watch.

Abbi kept glancing from her lap to her parents and back, ignoring Tuckers giggles until a wet snowball smacked him in the face. Throwing him back against the large chair and effectively stopping the laughter, at least for a moment.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you…" Abbi started, eyes trained on her hands that twisted and turned in her lap. "It's just… how could I? You aren't supposed to mess with the past and what if I did something? What if I made it so you don't get together? What if I'm never born? But I wanted to meet my dad. I'd never gotten to speak to him or ever see him. He's gone on business. He's been gone for as long as I can remember. And then… then I heard my mom… she was saying stuff about powers and me and… I just wanted to meet you… I didn't think it would work and then suddenly… everything's black and I'm waking up in the hospital with you three…"

Silence reined for a moment as they listened, it was Phantom who spoke first.

"You've never met your father? Me? I'm gone? Am I dead? Fully dead?" Phantom asked, worry filling his voice.

Abbi shook her head. "No, mom always talks as if my father, er… you, are alive, just… gone."

"Me? I'm your… you're my child? My daughter?" Sam asked. If Abbi hadn't grown up listening to that voice, she would have missed the awe she heard in Sam's tone. Abbi looked to Sam and nodded. "Do we… I mean…, how do we get along…? Do we like each other?" Sam asked quietly with a hint of worry.

"Yes, we get along well," Abbi said, drawing what Sam was truly asking about. "We have a good relationship. But Uncle Tucker did introduce me to meat and no, I'm not a vegetarian."

Tucker broke into a fit of giggle again. "Uncle? You call me 'uncle'?"

"Danny," Sam said sternly while gazing at Tucker.

"Gladly," Phantom said.

Another snowball hit Tucker in the face. "Hey! Come on! It's funny!"

Abbi laughed a bit at that, watching the three friends, before the conversation turned back to her.

Phantom's eyes filled with confusion as his memory traveled back. "So, if you're our… child… how come you don't know anything about ghosts? Why did the existence of ghosts shock you?"

"Ghosts aren't a problem in my Amity Park. They are never seen. No one talks about them. None of the grown ups mention stories of them or anything like that. Coming back here? Seeing everyone so calm about ghosts, well, calm-ish, was a bit nuts. And no, I don't know why. I don't know what happens between today and my day that changed Amity so much. If I ever get back, I'm going to ask, that's for sure," Abbi explained.

"That's impossible, my parents? Not tell their grand daughter about ghosts?" Phantom scoffed. "They would never be… able… to…"

Phantom's toxic green eyes widened, realization dawning. "Their dead… aren't they?"

"What?! No! No! They are just fine! Well… I assume they are just fine… since I've never met them. They live across state and we never visit them. We don't visit mom's parents either. They don't like me…"

"My parents left Amity Park? Wow… but, why?" Phantom asked, shocked and relieved that nothing had happened to them.

"I don't know. Mom doesn't talk about them," Abbi explained, shrugging.

"But that still doesn't explain how you got back here," Sam spoke up, looking at Abbi. "You didn't saw how, just that… you didn't think 'it' would work. What did you mean by that?"

Abbi looked at Sam as she spoke. "I heard you talking about me. About the fact I wasn't showing any signs of powers or of hiding any powers. That I wasn't acting like my dad when he was my age. It wasn't hard to figure out that my dad must have powers, powers that I was suddenly showing due to seeing… you…" Abbi looked shyly over at Phantom. "Some creep trying to seduce my mom. I attacked you and it brought out powers I didn't know I had. I was so angry," Abbi said looking down at her hands.

"Angry that my mom would cheat on my dad with this creep. Angry that he got away even if I didn't know how he got away. I ran from my mom, ran away, I needed to think. Needed to be alone. Then I started floating, my eyes were glowing, then I wasn't floating, mom was shouting at me to open the door… I didn't want to. I was about to think how I wished to go meet my dad, have him teach me about these powers when I remembered all the times my mom drilled into my head how I was never to wish for anything. That there was a ghost who could twist a wish around and make it come true in the worst way."

"I didn't think ghosts were real, but I had heeded that warning all my life," Abbi shrugged then shook her head. "Until that day when I decided to give it a try. I opened my window and… made the wish. Next thing I know this genie thing appears, says some funny words and it all went black." Abbi ended her story quietly. She expected the three friends to be confused, wondering about what could have happened or who this genie was. Instead they all had the similar look of recognition.

"Desiree," Sam murmured.

"Um… Who?"

DP DP DP

 **Posted 1/15/2020!**

And there we are. The next chapter is started, about 900 words in so that's good. The chapters need a little maintenance to clean up time frames. Never split a story up between two different times... it's way too confusing. At least now I can drop the whole Lilly-Abbi thing. My kitty Alice is currently doing 'crazy cat time', always fun to watch.

And Frozen II is out! Yippy! Why have I only seen it three times!? We were to at least ten by now for Frozen, Lita!

Well, what did you think of the chapter? Outstanding? Acceptable? Poor? Dreadful? ...Troll?

Feel free to leave a review! They keep me smiling!

 **Morning Bleach**


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